MDX
---
title: "Call a tool in your IDE/MCP Client"
description: "Learn how to call a tool in your IDE/MCP Client"
---
<!-- Editorial: Structure - Added intro line conforming to tutorial structure; Voice and Tone - Changed "you may want to" to direct language -->
import { Steps, Tabs, Callout } from "nextra/components";
import { SignupLink } from "@/app/_components/analytics";
import Image from "next/image";
import { MCPClientGrid } from "@/app/en/guides/tool-calling/mcp-clients/mcp-client-grid";
export const IMAGE_SCALE_FACTOR = 2;
export const CREATE_MCP_GATEWAY_DARK_WIDTH = 921;
export const CREATE_MCP_GATEWAY_DARK_HEIGHT = 1872;
export const CREATE_MCP_GATEWAY_LIGHT_WIDTH = 921;
export const CREATE_MCP_GATEWAY_LIGHT_HEIGHT = 1872;
export const TOOL_PICKER_DARK_WIDTH = 2560;
export const TOOL_PICKER_DARK_HEIGHT = 1518;
export const TOOL_PICKER_LIGHT_WIDTH = 2560;
export const TOOL_PICKER_LIGHT_HEIGHT = 1518;
export const MCP_GATEWAY_URL_DARK_WIDTH = 2834;
export const MCP_GATEWAY_URL_DARK_HEIGHT = 498;
export const MCP_GATEWAY_URL_LIGHT_WIDTH = 2834;
export const MCP_GATEWAY_URL_LIGHT_HEIGHT = 498;
# Call a tool in your IDE/MCP Client
You'll learn how to create an MCP Gateway to call tools from multiple MCP servers in your IDE.
Tools enable your AI agents to perform actions on your behalf. For specific workflows and use cases, this involves calling tools from multiple MCP servers. Arcade facilitates this by allowing you to create MCP Gateways to federate the tools from multiple MCP servers into a single collection for convenient management, control, and access. For example, if your agent specializes in solving specific tickets in Linear, use tools from the GitHub, Slack and Linear servers in your agent. These add up to 88 tools, which could be overwhelming for an LLM to use effectively. Get from these servers only the tools that matter for your agent. An MCP Gateway allows you to do just that: pick only the tools required for this workflow, and you can connect it to any MCP client, making it possible to port your agent to multiple platforms and IDEs, and even share it with other users.
<GuideOverview>
<GuideOverview.Outcomes>
Create a coding agent using an MCP Gateway to call tools from multiple MCP servers.
</GuideOverview.Outcomes>
<GuideOverview.Prerequisites>
- An <SignupLink linkLocation="docs:call-tools-directly">Arcade account</SignupLink>
</GuideOverview.Prerequisites>
<GuideOverview.YouWillLearn>
- Create an MCP Gateway
- Connect the MCP Gateway to Cursor or VS Code
- Call tools from the MCP Gateway in your agent
</GuideOverview.YouWillLearn>
</GuideOverview>
<Steps>
### Create an MCP Gateway
**Create a new MCP Gateway.** Go to the [MCP Gateways dashboard](https://api.arcade.dev/dashboard/mcp-gateways), and click the "Create MCP Gateway" button.
<Image
alt={"Create MCP Gateway"}
className="max-w-full dark:hidden mt-4"
src={"/images/mcp-gateway/create-mcp-gateway-light.png"}
width={CREATE_MCP_GATEWAY_LIGHT_WIDTH / IMAGE_SCALE_FACTOR}
height={CREATE_MCP_GATEWAY_LIGHT_HEIGHT / IMAGE_SCALE_FACTOR}
/>
<Image
alt={"Create MCP Gateway"}
className="hidden max-w-full dark:block mt-4"
src={"/images/mcp-gateway/create-mcp-gateway-dark.png"}
width={CREATE_MCP_GATEWAY_DARK_WIDTH / IMAGE_SCALE_FACTOR}
height={CREATE_MCP_GATEWAY_DARK_HEIGHT / IMAGE_SCALE_FACTOR}
/>
Give your MCP gateway:
- A name
- A description
- A slug (using a slug is straightforward to remember and share, but the system will generate one if left blank)
- Select the Authentication mode for the MCP Gateway
- **Arcade Auth**: To access the MCP Gateway, you'll need to authenticate with your Arcade account in an OAuth flow on a browser. For security, the token is only valid for a short time and your MCP client will need to refresh it periodically.
- **Arcade Headers**: To access the MCP Gateway, you'll need to authenticate with your Arcade account by passing an Arcade API key in the `Authorization` header and the user ID in the `Arcade-User-ID` header. Use this authentication mode for MCP clients that don't support browser authentication or token refresh.
### Select the tools you want to include in the gateway
**Click the "Select Tools" button** in the form to select the tools you want to include in the gateway. You can select tools from any MCP server available to the active project. For this example, select the following tools:
- the GitHub MCP server
- the Linear MCP server
Feel free to select any tools you want to include in your specific use case.
<Image
alt={"Tool Picker"}
className="max-w-full dark:hidden mt-4"
src={"/images/mcp-gateway/mcp-gateway-tool-filter-dev-light.png"}
width={TOOL_PICKER_LIGHT_WIDTH / IMAGE_SCALE_FACTOR}
height={TOOL_PICKER_LIGHT_HEIGHT / IMAGE_SCALE_FACTOR}
/>
<Image
alt={"Tool Picker"}
className="hidden max-w-full dark:block mt-4"
src={"/images/mcp-gateway/mcp-gateway-tool-filter-dev-dark.png"}
width={TOOL_PICKER_DARK_WIDTH / IMAGE_SCALE_FACTOR}
height={TOOL_PICKER_DARK_HEIGHT / IMAGE_SCALE_FACTOR}
/>
Once you've selected the tools you want to include in the gateway, click the "Use N tools" button in the tool picker, and then click the "Create MCP Gateway" button to create the gateway.
<Callout type="info">
You can select as many tools for your MCP Gateway as you want, but be mindful of how the MCP clients will handle the large number of tools. Some clients may not handle a large number of tools well, and may consume a significant portion of the LLM's context window. Keeping the number of tools in a single MCP Gateway below 80 is recommended.```
</Callout>
### Connect the MCP Gateway to an MCP client
Arcade MCP Gateways are compatible with any MCP client that supports:
- Streamable HTTP transport
- MCP OAuth, or support for setting up headers for the HTTP transport
Get the URL of your MCP Gateway by clicking the "Copy URL" button in the MCP Gateway details page.
<Image
alt={"MCP Gateway URL"}
className="max-w-full dark:hidden mt-4"
src={"/images/mcp-gateway/project-mcp-gateways-light.png"}
width={MCP_GATEWAY_URL_LIGHT_WIDTH / IMAGE_SCALE_FACTOR}
height={MCP_GATEWAY_URL_LIGHT_HEIGHT / IMAGE_SCALE_FACTOR}
/>
<Image
alt={"MCP Gateway URL"}
className="hidden max-w-full dark:block mt-4"
src={"/images/mcp-gateway/project-mcp-gateways-dark.png"}
width={MCP_GATEWAY_URL_DARK_WIDTH / IMAGE_SCALE_FACTOR}
height={MCP_GATEWAY_URL_DARK_HEIGHT / IMAGE_SCALE_FACTOR}
/>
Select the MCP client you want to use to read the instructions to connect to the MCP Gateway:
<MCPClientGrid />
### Try it out
1. Open your IDE's chat pane.
1. Ask the agent to do something. For example, "Check the latest linear issue assigned to me. Then, create a new GitHub branch, implement the fix, and add tests. If all the tests pass, create a pull request and assign it to me."
As you interact with the agent, it will call the tools from the MCP Gateway. Your agent should prompt you to visit links to authorize access to Linear and GitHub. After this, it will start using tools to carry out the task. Subsequent calls will not require authorization.
</Steps>
## Next steps
- Learn more about [MCP Gateways](/guides/create-tools/mcp-gateways).
- Build your own MCP servers with [arcade-mcp](/get-started/quickstarts/mcp-server-quickstart).Last updated on