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Quickstart

Two minutes from zero to a governed tool call. You need a Waxell account on a tenant with the gateway enabled.

1. Connect a client​

You connect as an agent

Each client connection is bound to one of your registered agents — that's what makes its tool calls attributable. If you don't have an agent yet, register one first in the Connect workspace (/c → Agents → Register), then pick it during sign-in below. See Agents & identity.

Claude.ai / Claude Desktop (Cowork)​

Add a custom connector pointed at:

https://mcp-gateway.waxell.dev/mcp

Claude discovers the gateway's OAuth configuration automatically and walks you through sign-in: pick your tenant, choose which of your agents this client is, approve. The token binds to that agent (no key to paste), and tokens refresh silently from then on.

Claude Code​

claude mcp add --transport http waxell-gateway https://mcp-gateway.waxell.dev/mcp

Then run /mcp in a session to authenticate — same browser dance.

Headless / CI (API key)​

Skip OAuth entirely with a Waxell API key:

claude mcp add --transport http waxell-gateway https://mcp-gateway.waxell.dev/mcp \
  --header "X-Wax-Key: wax_sk_..."

2. Understand what you see​

After connecting, Claude's tool list shows a handful of meta-tools, not hundreds of upstream tools. That's deliberate — the gateway defaults to a lean context and exposes the full catalog through search:

  • find_tools(query) — search every tool across every installed upstream
  • call_external_tool(upstream, tool, arguments) — invoke anything find_tools surfaced
  • pin_tool / unpin_tool / list_pinned_tools — promote favorites into your own tools/list

Admins can pre-load whole upstreams into the tool list with scope tags.

3. Make a governed call​

Ask Claude:

Using the Waxell Gateway, run find_tools for "notion", then search Notion for "roadmap".

Behind that one request: the gateway resolved your identity, evaluated policy rules against the call, fetched your Notion grant (never a shared credential), dispatched upstream, scanned the result, and wrote an audit row. Check Governance → MCP Gateway → Audit in the Waxell app to see it.

If the tool isn't there yet​

find_tools only searches upstreams your tenant has installed, and per-user OAuth upstreams only return tools once you've connected your account:

  1. Install (admin, once per tenant): Governance → MCP Gateway → Catalog → pick a connector → Install. Most need zero configuration.
  2. Connect (each user, once): Governance → MCP Gateway → Connections → Connect → approve on the vendor's consent screen.
  3. Wait ~60 seconds for the gateway to sync a fresh install, then retry.

Errors you might see and what they mean are in Troubleshooting.