🚀 MCP Gateway v0.3.0 - Annotations, Alembic, Auto-Recovery and Multi-Server Tool Federations, DX

[crivetimihai]

🚀 MCP Gateway v0.3.0 – 2025-07-08

This milestone release delivers powerful multi-server tool federations with rich annotations, enhanced UI management capabilities, and rock-solid stability improvements that make MCP Gateway ready for production workloads.

Note: This release introduces Alembic migrations to make future database schema changes seamless. These happen automatically, but in some cases, when upgrading from 0.1.0 - migration may not be possible and you will need to re-create your database. Ex: rm mcp.db.

✨ Highlights

• 🔗 Multi-Server Tool Federation – seamlessly aggregate tools, resources, and prompts across multiple MCP servers with intelligent namespace handling and UUID-based identity management.
• 🏷️ Rich Annotations & Metadata – enhanced tool and resource annotations with dynamic UI pickers for better discoverability and management.
• 🔄 Auto-Recovery & Resilience – automatic MCP server reactivation when services come back online, plus configurable connection retries with exponential backoff.
• 🎯 Dynamic UI Management – intuitive pickers for tool, resource, and prompt associations with real-time server status indicators.
• 📤 Enhanced Connection Export – one-click connection string generation for popular AI frameworks and clients.
• 🛠️ Developer Experience – comprehensive workstation setup guides, improved error handling, and cleaner database migrations.
• 🐹 Go MCP Server Reference – fast-time-server implementation showcasing best practices for high-performance MCP servers.

🆕 Added

• Namespace Composite Keys & UUIDs for robust tool identity across federated servers.
• Dynamic UI Picker for tool, resource, and prompt associations with live server filtering.
• Auto-activation system that automatically re-enables MCP servers when they recover.
• Configurable connection retries for databases and Redis with intelligent backoff strategies.
• Enhanced connection string export API and UI for seamless client integration.
• Go-based fast-time-server as a high-performance MCP server reference implementation.
• Developer Workstation Setup Guide covering Mac (Intel/ARM), Linux, and Windows environments.
• Improved file lock handling with proper /tmp directory usage for better multi-instance support.

🔄 Changed

• Database schema migration with separate enabled and reachable fields replacing the legacy is_active field.
• Enhanced path parameter handling for REST API virtualization with better substitution logic.
• Streamlined packaging with proper Alembic configuration inclusion in PyPI wheels.
• Modernized Pydantic patterns eliminating deprecation warnings and improving type safety.
• Improved UI responsiveness with better parameter input modal handling and validation.

🐛 Fixed

• Database migration packaging – Alembic configurations now properly included in pip installations.
• Field migration handling – smooth transition from is_active to enabled/reachable fields.
• File lock path creation – proper /tmp directory usage instead of current working directory.
• GitHub Remote Server addition flow now works reliably.
• Parameter input modals – close button functionality restored.
• Gateway reactivation warnings eliminated through proper Pydantic model handling.
• SBOM generation and documentation build targets now function correctly.
• Test suite stability with comprehensive Pydantic pattern updates.

🔐 Security

• Enhanced connection isolation with proper file locking mechanisms.
• Improved error handling that prevents information leakage.
• Database connection security with retry policies that don't expose credentials.

📦 Packaging & Deployment

• PyPI wheel improvements with complete Alembic migration support.
• Container optimization for better multi-instance deployments.
• Development tooling enhancements for contributor onboarding.

👥 New Contributors

We welcome new contributors who joined us in this release – thank you for your valuable contributions!

🙏 Returning Contributors who delivered excellence

• Mihai Criveti – release management, database migration architecture, Go time server implementation, comprehensive testing and stability improvements.
• Keval Mahajan – multi-server federation logic, UI picker implementation, auto-recovery system design.
• Madhav Kandukuri – namespace design, connection export enhancements, developer experience improvements.
• Abdul Samad – UI/UX refinements, parameter modal fixes, visual consistency improvements.
• Manav Gupta – packaging fixes, documentation improvements, build system enhancements.

Outstanding work making MCP Gateway production-ready! 🎉

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🔮 What's Next in v0.4.0

The next release will focus on Bugfixes, Resilience & Code Quality with:

• Universal retry mechanisms with exponential backoff
• Comprehensive test coverage (90%+ target)
• Advanced security scanning and static analysis
• Performance profiling and optimization
• Enhanced documentation and developer guides

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🔗 Resources

• 📚 Docs: https://ibm.github.io/mcp-context-forge/
• 🐳 Container: ghcr.io/ibm/mcp-context-forge:v0.3.0
• 🐍 PyPI: [mcp-contextforge-gateway](https://pypi.org/project/mcp-contextforge-gateway/)
• 📈 Full changelog: [Compare v0.2.0…v0.3.0](v0.2.0...v0.3.0)
• 🎯 Roadmap: [View upcoming releases](https://ibm.github.io/mcp-context-forge/architecture/roadmap/)