How do you roll out an MCP gateway in 30 days?
In short: Roll out an MCP gateway in four phases over 30 days. Discover servers and agents, then route a first server and move its credentials. Next, write policies with a pilot team. Finally, expand and block bypass paths. This plan lists one task per day. Download the CSV to assign owners.
Download mcp-gateway-rollout-plan.csv
| No. | Day | Task |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Day 1 | Name an owner for the gateway rollout and an executive sponsor |
| 2 | Day 2 | Export the list of AI tools and agents from your identity provider |
| 3 | Day 3 | Run discovery for MCP servers and agents, including local stdio servers |
| 4 | Day 4 | Build the registry: endpoint, owner and environment for each server |
| 5 | Day 5 | Classify tools by risk: read, write, delete, money movement, external send |
| 6 | Day 6 | Choose a gateway using the RFP questions and the selection table |
| 7 | Day 7 | Connect the gateway to your identity provider |
| 8 | Day 8 | Route one low-risk MCP server through the gateway in a test environment |
| 9 | Day 9 | Move that server's credentials into the gateway and delete them from configs |
| 10 | Day 10 | Write allow policies for read-only tools |
| 11 | Day 11 | Write deny policies for tools nobody should call |
| 12 | Day 12 | Write ask policies for risky tools and name approvers |
| 13 | Day 13 | Replay policies against recent sessions if the gateway supports it |
| 14 | Day 14 | Connect the audit trail to the SIEM |
| 15 | Day 15 | Pilot with one team on one coding agent |
| 16 | Day 16 | Review denied calls and approval requests with the pilot team |
| 17 | Day 17 | Tune policies and approval routing |
| 18 | Day 18 | Add the next three MCP servers |
| 19 | Day 19 | Hide tools agents do not need |
| 20 | Day 20 | Test revocation of a single agent |
| 21 | Day 21 | Test the gateway failure mode and confirm calls fail closed |
| 22 | Day 22 | Run a tabletop on a tool poisoning scenario |
| 23 | Day 23 | Run a tabletop on a leaked token scenario |
| 24 | Day 24 | Extend to a second team and a second agent |
| 25 | Day 25 | Block direct connections to registered servers that bypass the gateway |
| 26 | Day 26 | Alert on new unregistered servers |
| 27 | Day 27 | Document the approval process for new MCP servers |
| 28 | Day 28 | Report coverage: servers, agents and calls through the gateway |
| 29 | Day 29 | Agree the monthly review cadence for policies |
| 30 | Day 30 | Plan rollout to remaining teams |
See all three on the checklists index, or score answers with our rubric.
By The Datasheet desk · Published and reviewed 2026-11-03