Admin UI Customization¶

MCP Gateway's Admin UI supports flexible section visibility for embedding in third-party portals, restricting views for specific audiences, and reducing dashboard clutter. This guide covers environment-level configuration, per-request hiding, and embedded mode.

UI Visibility vs. RBAC

Section visibility is a UI convenience, not a security boundary. Hidden sections are still accessible via API. Use RBAC to control data access.

Quick Start¶

Hide specific sections and header items via environment variables:

# Hide the prompts and resources sections
MCPGATEWAY_UI_HIDE_SECTIONS=prompts,resources

# Hide the logout button and team selector
MCPGATEWAY_UI_HIDE_HEADER_ITEMS=logout,team_selector

Or hide sections per-request via query parameter:

https://gateway.example.com/admin/?ui_hide=prompts,resources,teams

Environment Variables¶

`MCPGATEWAY_UI_HIDE_SECTIONS`¶

Comma-separated or JSON list of sections to hide globally. Invalid values are logged and ignored.

Valid sections:

Section	What It Hides
`overview`	Overview dashboard tab
`servers`	Catalog / virtual servers tab
`gateways`	Gateway connections tab
`tools`	Tools registry tab
`prompts`	Prompts registry tab
`resources`	Resources registry tab
`roots`	Root directories tab
`mcp-registry`	MCP Registry tab
`metrics`	Metrics dashboard tab
`plugins`	Plugins tab
`export-import`	Export/Import tab
`logs`	System Logs tab
`version-info`	Version Info tab
`maintenance`	Maintenance tab
`teams`	Team management tab
`users`	User management tab
`agents`	A2A agents tab
`tokens`	API tokens tab
`settings`	LLM settings tab

Aliases: The following alternative names are also accepted:

Alias	Resolves To
`catalog`	`servers`
`virtual_servers`	`servers`
`a2a-agents`	`agents`
`a2a`	`agents`
`grpc-services`	`agents`
`api_tokens`	`tokens`
`llm-settings`	`settings`

Examples:

# CSV format
MCPGATEWAY_UI_HIDE_SECTIONS=prompts,resources,teams

# JSON format
MCPGATEWAY_UI_HIDE_SECTIONS=["prompts","resources","teams"]

# Using aliases
MCPGATEWAY_UI_HIDE_SECTIONS=catalog,a2a-agents

`MCPGATEWAY_UI_HIDE_HEADER_ITEMS`¶

Comma-separated or JSON list of header items to hide.

Valid items:

Item	What It Hides
`logout`	Logout button
`team_selector`	Team dropdown selector
`user_identity`	Username display
`theme_toggle`	Light/dark theme switch

MCPGATEWAY_UI_HIDE_HEADER_ITEMS=logout,team_selector

`MCPGATEWAY_UI_EMBEDDED`¶

Boolean flag that enables embedded mode. When true, automatically hides logout and team_selector header items (since the parent application typically handles authentication).

MCPGATEWAY_UI_EMBEDDED=true

This is equivalent to setting MCPGATEWAY_UI_HIDE_HEADER_ITEMS=logout,team_selector but communicates intent more clearly. If both are set, the values are merged.

Per-Request Hiding with `?ui_hide=`¶

For embedded contexts where different pages need different views, use the ?ui_hide= query parameter:

/admin/?ui_hide=prompts,resources,teams

The query parameter value is stored in an httponly cookie (mcpgateway_ui_hide_sections) with a 30-day lifetime. Subsequent requests to /admin/ without the query parameter will use the cookie value. This means iframe reloads maintain the same view.

Clearing Preferences¶

Visit with an empty value to clear the cookie and restore the full view:

/admin/?ui_hide=

Merge Behavior¶

Per-request values are merged with environment-level configuration. If the environment hides users and a request adds ?ui_hide=tools, both users and tools are hidden.

Embedding in an Iframe¶

A typical embedding scenario:

<iframe
  src="https://gateway.example.com/admin/?ui_hide=users,teams,tokens,settings"
  style="width: 100%; height: 100vh; border: none;"
></iframe>

With environment configuration:

MCPGATEWAY_UI_EMBEDDED=true
MCPGATEWAY_UI_HIDE_SECTIONS=users,teams,tokens,settings

This produces a streamlined view showing only servers, gateways, tools, prompts, and resources — without the logout button or team selector.

Docker Compose Example¶

services:
  mcpgateway:
    image: mcpgateway:latest
    environment:
      - MCPGATEWAY_UI_ENABLED=true
      - MCPGATEWAY_UI_EMBEDDED=true
      - MCPGATEWAY_UI_HIDE_SECTIONS=users,teams,tokens,settings
      - MCPGATEWAY_UI_HIDE_HEADER_ITEMS=logout,team_selector

Helm Chart¶

# values.yaml
mcpgateway:
  env:
    MCPGATEWAY_UI_EMBEDDED: "true"
    MCPGATEWAY_UI_HIDE_SECTIONS: "users,teams,tokens,settings"
    MCPGATEWAY_UI_HIDE_HEADER_ITEMS: "logout,team_selector"

Performance¶

Hidden sections are optimized at the server level. When a section is hidden, the Admin UI endpoint skips the corresponding database queries entirely. For example, hiding tools prevents the tools table query, hiding teams skips team enumeration. This reduces response time and database load for partial-view deployments.

Architecture¶

For the design rationale behind this feature, see ADR-0040: Flexible Admin UI Section Visibility.