From stdio to HTTP SSE: Host Your MCP Server with APISIX API Gateway

Introduction In contemporary API infrastructure, HTTP protocols and streaming communications (like SSE, WebSocket) have become mainstream for building real-time, interactive applications. Over the past few months, the Model Context Protocol (MCP) has gained popularity. However, most MCP Servers are implemented via stdio for local environments and cannot be invoked by external services and developers. To bridge these services with modern API architectures, Apache APISIX has introduced the mcp-bridge plugin. It seamlessly converts stdio-based MCP services into HTTP SSE streaming interfaces and manages them through an API gateway for routing and traffic management. Model Context Protocol (MCP) Overview MCP is an open protocol that standardizes how AI applications provide context information to large language models (LLMs). It allows developers to switch between different LLM providers while ensuring data security and facilitating integration with local or remote data sources. Supporting a client-server architecture, MCP servers expose specific functionalities that are accessible to clients via these servers. What Is the mcp-bridge Plugin? The Apache APISIX mcp-bridge plugin launches a subprocess to manage the MCP Server, takes over its stdio channel, transforms client HTTP SSE requests into MCP protocol calls, and pushes responses back to the client via SSE. Key features:

Apr 21, 2025 - 11:43

From stdio to HTTP SSE: Host Your MCP Server with APISIX API Gateway

Introduction

In contemporary API infrastructure, HTTP protocols and streaming communications (like SSE, WebSocket) have become mainstream for building real-time, interactive applications. Over the past few months, the Model Context Protocol (MCP) has gained popularity. However, most MCP Servers are implemented via stdio for local environments and cannot be invoked by external services and developers.

To bridge these services with modern API architectures, Apache APISIX has introduced the mcp-bridge plugin. It seamlessly converts stdio-based MCP services into HTTP SSE streaming interfaces and manages them through an API gateway for routing and traffic management.

Model Context Protocol (MCP) Overview

MCP is an open protocol that standardizes how AI applications provide context information to large language models (LLMs). It allows developers to switch between different LLM providers while ensuring data security and facilitating integration with local or remote data sources. Supporting a client-server architecture, MCP servers expose specific functionalities that are accessible to clients via these servers.

What Is the `mcp-bridge` Plugin?

The Apache APISIX mcp-bridge plugin launches a subprocess to manage the MCP Server, takes over its stdio channel, transforms client HTTP SSE requests into MCP protocol calls, and pushes responses back to the client via SSE.

Key features: