[Bug]:Getting 401 un-authorized on Testing tools in "In-Cognito" mode.

[sunvk]

🐞 Bug Summary

Briefly describe the issue or unexpected behavior.

Open the gateway app in In-Cognito mode in Chrome.
Login as admin.
Try testing any tools/resources/prompts.
Getting a popup 401 unauthorized.

Thanks,
Sunish

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🧩 Affected Component

Select the area of the project impacted:

• mcpgateway - API
• mcpgateway - UI (admin panel)
• mcpgateway.wrapper - stdio wrapper
• Federation or Transports
• CLI, Makefiles, or shell scripts
• Container setup (Docker/Podman/Compose)
• Other (explain below)

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🔁 Steps to Reproduce

1. ...
2. ...
3. ...

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🤔 Expected Behavior

What should have happened instead?

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📓 Logs / Error Output

Paste any relevant stack traces or logs here.
⚠️ Do not paste secrets, credentials, or tokens.

---

🧠 Environment Info

You can retrieve most of this from the /version endpoint.

Key	Value
Version or commit	e.g. v0.9.0 or main@a1b2c3d
Runtime	e.g. Python 3.11, Gunicorn
Platform / OS	e.g. Ubuntu 22.04, macOS
Container	e.g. Docker, Podman, none

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🧩 Additional Context (optional)

Add any configuration details, flags, or related issues.

[rakdutta]

@sunvk
I tested the application in Chrome’s Incognito mode by logging in as an admin. The addition of tools, resources, and prompts is working as expected on my end.

[sunvk]

I am getting this error in normal mode as well when enabled authentication, apart from in cognito mode. Below is my docker compose config. Could you please let me know anything I am missing. If I disable auth, it is working fine.

name: ibm-mcp-context-forge
services:
mcp-gateway:
image: mcpgateway/mcpgateway:latest
container_name: mcp-gateway
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- "4444:4444"
volumes:
- /opt/mcp-gateway/data:/data

environment:
  - APP_NAME=MCP Gateway
  - HOST=0.0.0.0
  - PORT=4444
  - JWT_SECRET_KEY=my-test-key
  - MCPGATEWAY_UI_ENABLED=true
  - MCPGATEWAY_ADMIN_API_ENABLED=true
  - BASIC_AUTH_USER=admin
  - BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=admin123
  - AUTH_REQUIRED=true
  - DATABASE_URL=sqlite:////data/mcp.db
  - ENVIRONMENT=development
  - SECURITY_HEADERS_ENABLED=true
  - CORS_ALLOW_CREDENTIALS=true
network_mode: "host"

[rakdutta]

I have tested this in Docker, and it’s working as expected.

I followed the steps below:

Option 1: Follow the [Minimum Viable Run instructions](https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge/blob/main/README.md#-docker) from the README.

Option 2:

1. Clone the mcp-context-forge repository.
2. cd mcp-context-forge
3. Run make docker-build
4. Run make docker-run

Both approaches worked successfully on my setup. Once logged in, you should not encounter a 401 Unauthorized error.

Please follow either of the steps above and let me know if you continue to face any issues.

[spsingh1982]

I also tried same steps and getting same issue as @sunvk
Getting that same 401 error.

[sunvk]

Hello @rakdutta,
I tried the minimum viable run on a new VM altogether again.

I am getting 401 unzuthorized on clicking all tabs even after login as admin user.

1 - Minimum viable run
docker run -d --name mcpgateway
-p 4444:4444
-e MCPGATEWAY_UI_ENABLED=true
-e MCPGATEWAY_ADMIN_API_ENABLED=true
-e HOST=0.0.0.0
-e JWT_SECRET_KEY=my-test-key
-e BASIC_AUTH_USER=admin
-e BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=changeme
-e AUTH_REQUIRED=true
-e DATABASE_URL=sqlite:///./mcp.db
ghcr.io/ibm/mcp-context-forge:0.6.0

2. Login as admin user and click on tabs like Logs, Metrics etc.
   Getting 401 unauthorized error.

Logs from container:
`

2025-09-02 22:44:44,562 - uvicorn.access - INFO - 10.60.41.187:54239 - "GET /admin/metrics HTTP/1.1" 401
2025-09-02 22:44:49,232 - uvicorn.access - INFO - 10.60.41.187:54273 - "GET /admin/logs?limit=100&offset=0&order=desc HTTP/1.1" 401
2025-09-02 22:44:52,866 - uvicorn.access - INFO - 10.60.41.187:54279 - "GET /admin/metrics HTTP/1.1" 401
2025-09-02 22:44:53,922 - uvicorn.access - INFO - 10.60.41.187:54279 - "GET /admin/logs?limit=100&offset=0&order=desc HTTP/1.1" 401
2025-09-02 22:44:55,150 - uvicorn.access - INFO - 10.60.41.187:54279 - "GET /admin/metrics HTTP/1.1" 401
2025-09-02 22:44:59,735 - uvicorn.access - INFO - 127.0.0.1:48850 - "GET /health HTTP/1.1" 200
2025-09-02 22:45:15,062 - uvicorn.access - INFO - 10.60.41.187:54296 - "GET /version?partial=true HTTP/1.1" 401
2025-09-02 22:45:17,590 - uvicorn.access - INFO - 10.60.41.187:54297 - "GET /admin/import/status HTTP/1.1" 401
2025-09-02 22:45:18,351 - uvicorn.access - INFO - 10.60.41.187:54297 - "GET /admin/logs?limit=100&offset=0&order=desc HTTP/1.1" 401
2025-09-02 22:45:19,467 - uvicorn.access - INFO - 10.60.41.187:54297 - "GET /admin/metrics HTTP/1.1" 401
2025-09-02 22:45:30,738 - uvicorn.access - INFO - 127.0.0.1:45314 - "GET /health HTTP/1.1" 200

`

Thanks,
Sunish

[spsingh1982]

+1 on this issue

[sunvk]

I am getting this error only on 0.6.0

Working fine in 0.5.0 as shown below.

[adrianescutia]

I am facing similar issue on v0.6.0 - enabling Auth is not allowing me to access some features in the UI, like edit, view, servers and tools.

[sunvk]

@crivetimihai @rakdutta Could you please help with this

[kevalmahajan]

Hi @sunvk @spsingh1982 @adrianescutia,

Can you please provide me few details as we are not able to replicate this issue:

1. Is this issue for all the mac users?
2. Which browser are you using? (Please try a different browser once, sometimes the cookies are blocked by the browser and hence the authentication is not properly sent to the backend APIs)
3. Whenever you load the UI fresh in incognito window, does it asks for authentication?

Suggest debugging steps:

1. In rbac.py file, in get_current_user_with_permissions function, print for the token and check if the token is reaching the backend apis or not.

[sunvk]

I tried using the standard docker image as well as by building the docker image from the code.
1.I am running the server in a RHEL 8 VM.
2. Tried accessing it from Both MAC & Windows, using Chrome browser.
3. This issue is happening in both Incognito and Regular mode. As soon as the admin page is loaded, it is asking for credentials.
After successfull authentication, when I click Tabs like Metrics, or version or test any tools, I am getting "401 unauthorized error".
4. Once I switch the version from 0.6.0 to 0.5.0, everything is start working fine without any auth issue.

docker run -d --name mcpgateway
-p 4444:4444
-e MCPGATEWAY_UI_ENABLED=true
-e MCPGATEWAY_ADMIN_API_ENABLED=true
-e HOST=0.0.0.0
-e JWT_SECRET_KEY=my-test-key
-e BASIC_AUTH_USER=admin
-e BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=changeme
-e AUTH_REQUIRED=true
-e DATABASE_URL=sqlite:///./mcp.db
ghcr.io/ibm/mcp-context-forge:0.6.0