Support dynamic server registration without restart

[arjavdongaonkar]

I might be completely wrong, but currently, the Docker MCP Gateway requires specifying servers using the --servers flag at startup. This means whenever we need to introduce a new MCP server, we must restart the gateway with updated flags.

Problem:

• In dynamic environments (e.g., Kubernetes, Compose setups), new MCP servers may be introduced frequently.
• Restarting the gateway each time a new server is added is disruptive and complicates orchestration.

Feature Request:

• Allow the gateway to load servers from a configuration file (e.g., catalog.yaml) or a mounted volume and watch for changes.
• Alternatively, provide an API or CLI to register/unregister servers dynamically while the gateway is running.

Benefits:

• Simplifies dynamic discovery and scaling of MCP servers.
• Eliminates downtime or restarts when new servers are introduced.
• Makes the gateway more flexible in multi-server/multi-agent environments.

Also, I am open to contributing. Please let me know if I can be of any help
Thanks!

[slimslenderslacks]

@arjavdongaonkar thanks for opening! Currently, we support a --registry flag, and a --watch flag which would trigger the gateway to reload servers if either the catalog.yaml file, or the registry.yaml file are updated (the catalog.yaml files have server entries, and the registry.yaml file acts like a --servers flag to select entries from catalogs).

This being said, we're also looking at exposing MCP tools to manage these entries more dynamically.

Some of this has become confusing because we're building tools for the gateway to manage large catalogs but at the same time, users are asking for more session-specific control over what capabilities are exposed to agent by the tools/list, prompts/list, resources/list requests. I think that aligns with one of your comments above - that we need more flexibility in multi-server/multi-agent environments. Does that align with what you're thinking?

[arjavdongaonkar]

Thanks for clarifying!
Happy to try things out with the current file-based approach and also contribute if you need help with the future dynamic management tools.