managed-agent-control-mcp

Start, observe, and interact with Claude Managed Agents from any MCP client (Claude.ai, Claude Code, Cursor, mcp-remote, your own agent, …).

Claude Managed Agents run on Anthropic's platform — each is an agent definition (model, system prompt, tools, skills) that executes inside a sandbox environment. This MCP server puts a remote control on those agents: connect it to any MCP client and you can launch an agent, watch what it does, reply to it, approve the tools it wants to run, and stop it. Claude.ai is the showcase client (do it all from a normal conversation), but the same tools work from Claude Code, Cursor, mcp-remote, the MCP Inspector, or a custom MCP client. It is the runtime companion to the Terraform provider that defines agents declaratively.

It runs as a local stdio server, a generic HTTP container, or on AWS Lambda, with pluggable inbound auth (static bearer, generic OIDC, or an AWS Cognito preset).

[!NOTE] This is a community project. It is not maintained by, endorsed by, or affiliated with Anthropic. The Managed Agents API is a beta API (managed-agents-2026-04-01).

How it works

MCP client ──MCP──▶ managed-agent-control-mcp ──HTTPS (x-api-key)──▶ Managed Agents API
(Claude.ai,         (this server: tools + auth)                     (agents run here)
 Claude Code, …)

You drive a loop: discover an agent → start a session → observe by polling events → interact (reply / interrupt / approve tools) → end. Because MCP tool calls are request/response, observation is by polling (session_events / session_get) — there is no live stream into the chat.

Quickstart (local, <2 min)

You need an ANTHROPIC_API_KEY with Managed Agents access and uv.

git clone https://github.com/modus-agendi/managed-agent-control-mcp
cd managed-agent-control-mcp
uv sync

# Run the server over stdio:
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-... uv run python -m managed_agents_mcp

Explore the tools interactively with the MCP Inspector:

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-... npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector \
  uv run python -m managed_agents_mcp

Register it with Claude Code (a project-scoped .mcp.json is included):

claude mcp add managed-agent-control -- uv run python -m managed_agents_mcp

Once published to PyPI, you can skip the clone: uvx managed-agent-control-mcp.

Tools

Tier	Tool	Does
Discover	agent_list / agent_get	Find an agent and inspect its config
	environment_list / environment_get	Find a sandbox environment
	vault_list / vault_get	Find a credential vault to attach at session_start
	memory_store_list / memory_store_get	Find a persistent memory store
Start	session_start	Create a session and (optionally) send the first instruction
Observe	session_get	Status (idle/running/…) + token usage
	session_list	List sessions
	session_events	Poll the agent's output/activity (cursor + type filter)
Interact	session_message	Send a message / continue a turn
	session_interrupt	Stop or redirect a running agent
	session_respond	Approve/deny a tool the agent is waiting on
Destructive 🔒	session_archive / session_delete	Archive (keep history) or delete

See docs/tools.md for every argument and return shape.

Configuration

Only ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is required for local use. Full reference in docs/configuration.md.

Env var	Purpose
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Required. Operator key the server acts with.
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL	Override the API base URL (gateways/testing).
MCP_AUTH_MODE	Inbound auth for HTTP: bearer, oidc, cognito (comma-separated to combine).
MCP_BEARER_TOKEN	Shared token for bearer mode.
MCP_OIDC_ISSUER / MCP_OIDC_JWKS_URL / MCP_OIDC_AUDIENCE	JWT verification for oidc/cognito.
MCP_ALLOWLIST_AGENTS_ACTIVE	true activates the agent allowlist (default off → all agents allowed).
MCP_ALLOWED_AGENT_IDS	Agents session_start may launch when the allowlist is active.
MCP_ALLOW_DESTRUCTIVE	false disables archive/delete.

Authentication

There are two auth layers (kept separate by design):

• Outbound — how this server calls Anthropic: your ANTHROPIC_API_KEY.
• Inbound — how MCP clients authenticate to this server. Pluggable and required for any HTTP deployment:
  • bearer — a shared static token. Simplest; works with Claude.ai connectors and mcp-remote.
  • oidc — verify JWTs from any OIDC provider (Auth0, Okta, Keycloak, Entra, Cognito).
  • cognito — the OIDC verifier plus the hosted-UI OAuth facade Cognito needs.

Setup and Claude.ai connector onboarding: docs/authentication.md.

[!WARNING] Never expose an HTTP deployment without an inbound auth mode set. Anyone who passes inbound auth can drive your Anthropic key — scope the key and use the guardrails.

Deployment

Target	How
Local (stdio)	uv run python -m managed_agents_mcp
Container (HTTP)	docker build -f deploy/Dockerfile -t macmcp . && docker run -p 8000:8000 …
AWS Lambda	Self-contained Terraform module in deploy/aws-lambda/

Details: docs/deployment.md.

Documentation

• Configuration — every env var + guardrails
• Authentication — bearer / OIDC / Cognito + Claude.ai setup
• Deployment — local, container, Lambda
• Architecture — module map, the two auth layers, the polling model
• Tools — full tool reference
• Examples — end-to-end deployment walkthroughs (host + OAuth provider)

Contributing

Contributions welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md and the Code of Conduct. Found a security issue? See SECURITY.md.

License

MIT — see LICENSE. Maintained by Andrei Svirida.