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If an MCP server you want to add to an MCP Deployment or MCP Gateway isn’t in our catalogue, you can add it yourself using the Custom MCP Server tool at airia.ai/settings/mcp-servers/new.

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Basic Information

FieldRequiredDescription
Server NameYesThe name the MCP server will appear as when creating Deployments or Gateways.
CategoryYesThe category the server can be filtered by when creating Deployments or Gateways.
DescriptionNoA short description of the server’s purpose and functionality. Appears on the server card.
TagsNoHelp you organize and search for your server later on.

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Remote Configuration

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Transport Type

The transport type is the protocol Airia uses to communicate with the custom server. It’s a property of the underlying server itself, so choosing the wrong one will cause the server to fail.
TransportDescription
HTTP (MCP Protocol) (Default)The current standard protocol, following spec revision 2025-03-26. All communication happens over a single endpoint, the server streams responses when needed and identifies sessions via the Mcp-Session-Id header. Use this for all new integrations, and default to it when a transport type isn’t specified in a server’s documentation.
SSE (Server Sent Events)The original protocol for remote MCPs, from the 2024-11-05 MCP spec revision. Often used by server URLs ending in /sse, though occasionally an /sse endpoint actually expects HTTP transport. It uses two channels: the client opens a long-lived GET connection to /sse to receive server messages as Server-Sent Events, and the server tells the client a separate endpoint (usually /messages) to POST client requests to.
Hosted YAML (OpenAPI spec)An Airia specific transport type for services that don’t have an official remote MCP, have a poorly implemented one, or whose tools don’t cover your use case. For this transport type, you’ll need to provide the OpenAPI YAML URL and an Upstream API Base URL. See the SpecLink page for more information.

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Server URI

The HTTPS endpoint the MCP server is hosted at, for example https://mcp.slack.com/mcp.
You must click Validate before continuing to the next step.

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Use ACC

Whether you want to route the server through the Airia Cloud Connector.

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Custom Headers (Optional)

Some servers require additional HTTP headers to be sent with each request. You can usually find these in the documentation page for the MCP server you’re connecting to. For example, Datadog’s documentation lists the following configuration: 
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "datadog": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.datadoghq.com/v1/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "DD_API_KEY": "<YOUR_API_KEY>",
        "DD_APPLICATION_KEY": "<YOUR_APPLICATION_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}
Here, the headers you’d need to add are DD_API_KEY and DD_APPLICATION_KEY.
Use {AuthToken} as a placeholder for credential values.
DCR OAuth servers generally don’t need custom headers.

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Authentication Method

  • No Authentication: Some servers, usually documentation servers, don’t require authentication to access. Since there’s no authentication, the server won’t be able to identify you as a specific user. In a server’s documentation, its configuration will often contain only a URL.
  • API Key: Used for servers with API key or Bearer token authentication. The headers needed for API key auth can be set up in the Custom Headers section of Remote Configuration.
  • OAuth 2.0 / DCR: The most common authentication method for MCP servers, and usually the one described in a server’s documentation. If a server’s configuration includes just a URL and you’d expect to have to sign in to use it, it’s most likely a DCR OAuth server.
  • Pass-Through Authentication: Airia forwards incoming request headers directly to the remote server. This only works if the way you authenticate to Airia is identical to the way you authenticate to the remote server.
Authentication method is a property of the underlying server, so it’s usually not a free choice. If a server uses API keys for authentication, you can’t choose DCR OAuth instead. Doing so will cause the connection attempt to fail.
After creating the server, you can configure credentials and test connectivity from the MCP Servers page.