Introduction

Your Laravel application already describes every input with FormRequests and decides every call with guards, gates and policies. Laravel MCP Bridge serves what it already declares to AI agents as MCP tools, without a second copy of either. It is built on the official laravel/mcp package, which keeps the transport and the protocol.

use KayedSpace\McpBridge\Attributes\McpTool;

#[McpTool(description: 'Create a draft course.')]
public function store(CourseStoreRequest $request)
{
    // unchanged
}

The agent now sees a create_course tool, typed from CourseStoreRequest. When it calls the tool, the call runs through your route: your middleware authenticates it, the FormRequest validates it and your policy authorizes it. Nothing is exposed until you mark it, and your existing routes and responses stay exactly as they are.

Installation

composer require kayedspace/laravel-mcp-bridge
php artisan mcp-bridge:install

Add the token trait to the model your agents connect as:

use KayedSpace\McpBridge\Concerns\HasMcpTokens;

class User extends Authenticatable
{
    use HasMcpTokens;
}

Mark a route with #[McpTool], check what is exposed, then connect a client:

php artisan mcp-bridge:tools --refused
php artisan mcp-bridge:token you@example.com --name=Claude --scopes=courses:read
php artisan mcp-bridge:connect claude --token=mcpb_... --apply

--apply runs claude mcp add for you. For Cursor and VS Code it writes the client's JSON file. The getting started guide walks through the same steps in more detail.

Sources

Eight sources can produce tools. Each one is switched on in config/mcp-bridge.php, and only routes and resources are on after install.

Two servers

The package serves two MCP endpoints, so the tools a product agent needs and the tools an operator needs never share one catalog or one token.

Each server has its own middleware and rate limiter (throttle:mcp and throttle:mcp-ops) and both authenticate with the package's token guard. A tool can move to another server with #[McpGroup], a source can move in servers.*.sources, and you can add servers of your own. See servers and modules.

Already using laravel/mcp?

Your own servers keep working beside the package's. To serve your hand-written laravel/mcp tools, resources and prompts on the same endpoint as the generated tools, list them on a package server:

'servers' => [
    'default' => [
        'tools' => [App\Mcp\Tools\CurrentWeather::class],
        'resources' => [App\Mcp\Resources\StaffHandbook::class],
    ],
],

Exposure modes

The mode setting, or MCP_BRIDGE_MODE, decides which routes become tools:

Switching the whole API to opt-out is one line:

MCP_BRIDGE_MODE=opt-out

Discovery decides which routes are candidates in the first place: by default every route under api/, minus webhooks and api/internal/*, adjustable under discovery. #[McpIgnore] keeps a route out in every mode.

The mode applies to routes only. Commands, jobs, actions and models stay opt-in per class in every mode, because they have no middleware or policy to inherit, and an app-wide switch should never hand an agent an Artisan command.

List endpoints come out typed. Allowed filters, sorts, includes and fields become structured inputs, read from attributes, from route model binding, or from an existing Spatie Query Builder chain by static analysis. Scramble and Scribe attributes feed the same schema.

Authorization

A route arrives already protected, so a route tool inherits everything: middleware, guard, FormRequest and policy. A tool can take permissions away, never add one.

Commands, jobs, actions and models have nothing to inherit, so each one must declare who may run it, in every mode:

use KayedSpace\McpBridge\Attributes\McpAbility;
use KayedSpace\McpBridge\Attributes\McpScope;
use KayedSpace\McpBridge\Attributes\McpTool;

#[McpTool(description: 'Recalculate course statistics for a date range.')]
#[McpScope('ops:write')]
#[McpAbility('run-reports')]
class RecalculateStats extends Command
{
    // unchanged
}

Without both attributes the command is not exposed, and mcp-bridge:lint fails your CI.

To decide who may use MCP at all, for example only subscribers, define an accessMcp gate. It covers every tool on a server, and receives the server's key:

Gate::define('accessMcp', fn (User $user, string $server): bool => $user->subscribed());

A model tool also needs a policy method for each operation. Scopes and abilities are checked when tools are listed and again on every call.

Agents retry and guess, so the package plans for it:

• Destructive tools answer first with a preview and a single-use confirmation handle.
• Writes accept an idempotency_key, so a retried create returns the first answer.
• An argument the tool does not declare is refused, with the names it accepts.
• Revoking a token stops jobs it has already queued.

The security guide covers the full model.

Operating it

Tokens are scoped and expire after 90 days by default. Issue them from the CLI, from the panel at /mcp-bridge, behind a gate you define, or from Filament. Sanctum and Passport tokens work too.

Every call writes one audit row, with sensitive arguments masked, and fires a ToolCalled event for metrics and alerts. When an agent misbehaves, switch a tool off without a deploy:

php artisan mcp-bridge:kill delete_course
php artisan mcp-bridge:kill delete_course --revive

The package's checks appear in php artisan doctor when laravel/doctor is installed, and mcp-bridge:doctor runs them on its own.

Testing

use App\Models\User;
use KayedSpace\McpBridge\Testing\InteractsWithMcp;

uses(InteractsWithMcp::class);

it('exposes the catalogue the way we meant', function () {
    $this->assertToolExists('list_courses')
        ->assertToolReadOnly('list_courses')
        ->assertToolNeedsConfirmation('delete_course');

    $result = $this->callMcpTool('list_courses', ['per_page' => 2], as: User::factory()->create());

    expect($result->isError)->toBeFalse();
});

it('keeps its agent contract', function () {
    expect($this->mcpContract())->toMatchSnapshot();
});

callMcpTool() goes through the same runner a connected client does, so a test cannot prove more than the agent gets. The contract snapshot fails when a tool's name, schema or hints change without anyone meaning them to.

AI coding agents

When Laravel Boost is installed, it picks up this package's guidelines and skill automatically, so your coding agent knows how to expose an endpoint and which mistakes to avoid.

Documentation

The full documentation lives at laravel-mcp-bridge.kayed.dev.

Requirements

• PHP 8.3 or higher
• Laravel 12.41.1 or higher, or Laravel 13
• laravel/mcp 1.1, MCP revision 2026-07-28

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for how the package is put together. composer serve starts a workbench app with a live /mcp endpoint, and composer test runs the whole gate.

Security

Please report security issues through a private security advisory on this repository rather than a public issue. See SECURITY.md.

Credits

• Ali Youssef Kayed

License

Laravel MCP Bridge is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.