IBM ContextForge MCP GatewayIBM | Datasheet DS-009 | Rev 2026-11-03 |
| Total 5.15 / 10 | Shares seventh place | |
| Status: Open source under the Apache 2.0 licence. | ||
In short: ContextForge scores 5.15 out of 10 and shares seventh place in this guide. Its strongest area is deployment, and its weakest is human approval. Deployment is listed as Open source, self-hosted. It is free under Apache 2.0. Each score below has a reason and a dated source.
Features
- Unified endpoint for MCP servers and REST APIs
- Tool catalog and centralized discovery
- Gateway federation with shared JWT trust
- Guardrails, retry, timeout and rate-limit policies
- Encrypted credential storage
Specifications
| Parameter | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Product type | Open source MCP gateway and registry | [cforge-gh] |
| Licence | Apache 2.0 | [cforge-gh] |
| Auth | JWT; federated SSO (Google, GitHub, Entra ID) | [cforge-gh] |
| Registry | Tool catalog, federation | [cforge-gh] |
| Price as published | Free open source | [cforge-gh] |
How does ContextForge score on each criterion?
| Criterion | Weight | Score | Reason | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| G1 Identity-bound per-call authorization | 25 | 5 | Requests are authenticated with JWT and teams with RBAC, but checks against the person an agent acts for are not described. | [cforge-gh] |
| G2 Credential brokering | 20 | 5 | Stored credentials are encrypted at rest, but short-lived brokering on each call was not described. | [cforge-gh] |
| G3 Human approval and escalation | 15 | 2 | No human approval step was found. | [cforge-gh] |
| G4 Server registry and discovery | 10 | 7 | A tool catalog with centralized discovery and federation across gateways is documented. | [cforge-gh] |
| G5 Audit evidence | 10 | 5 | Observability is documented, but per-call logs tied to a person and SIEM export were not confirmed. | [cforge-gh] |
| G6 Standards | 10 | 5 | OAuth and federated SSO through Google, GitHub and Entra ID are named; MCP authorization specifics were not. | [cforge-gh] |
| G7 Deployment and buying clarity | 10 | 9 | Free to self-host under Apache 2.0. | [cforge-gh] |
| Total | 100 | 5.15 | Sum of score times weight, divided by 100. | |
Typical deployment
Self-hosted container.
Pricing as published
Free under Apache 2.0.
Works alongside your identity provider?
Yes. Federated SSO through Google, GitHub and Entra ID is documented. [cforge-gh]
Frequently asked questions
- Does ContextForge work alongside my identity provider?
- Yes. Federated SSO through Google, GitHub and Entra ID is documented.
- How is ContextForge deployed?
- Self-hosted container.
- What does ContextForge cost?
- Free under Apache 2.0.
How does it compare?
Revision history
| Rev | Change |
|---|---|
| 2026-11-03 | First issue of this datasheet. |
Sources
- IBM/mcp-context-forge README [cforge-gh] read 2026-11-03
By The Datasheet desk · Published and reviewed 2026-11-03