anythingmcp: Turn APIs and Databases into MCP Tools

Overview

AnythingMCP is a self-hosted gateway built around the Model Context Protocol (MCP). It turns existing REST/OpenAPI, SOAP, GraphQL, OData and database systems into MCP tools, so teams can connect business systems to Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot and other MCP clients without writing an MCP server for each one.

It is aimed at organizations that have useful APIs and systems, such as ERPs or databases, but do not yet expose them to AI clients through MCP. The gateway lets teams configure the tools and fields an AI can access, then serve them through a managed endpoint with authentication, role controls and audit logging.

Key Features

• Import OpenAPI specs, Postman collections, WSDL, GraphQL schemas, OData metadata and supported database connections to create tools.
• Use a catalog of ready-made adapters for systems including SAP, Odoo, Amazon Seller Central and WooCommerce.
• Connect MCP-compatible clients through a shared server endpoint, with tools registered at runtime.
• Configure tool names, descriptions, field mappings and role-based access, including excluding sensitive response fields.
• Apply authentication methods such as OAuth2, API keys, Basic and Bearer auth, with credentials encrypted at rest.
• Record tool calls in an audit log and apply read-only behavior to database query tools by default.
• Build a workspace knowledge graph of entities and relationships across connectors, without storing entity values.

Use Cases

• An ERP team can expose selected SAP or Odoo operations to an AI assistant while limiting access to read-only tools or specific roles.
• An e-commerce operator can let an assistant look up orders, inventory or listings across connected shops and marketplaces.
• An integration team can make a legacy SOAP service or an existing OpenAPI API available to MCP clients without building a separate server.
• A data team can provide controlled, read-only database queries to an assistant, with response fields filtered and calls logged.

Getting Started

The quickstart uses Docker Compose and openssl to generate secrets:

mkdir anythingmcp && cd anythingmcp
curl -fsSLo docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HelpCode-ai/anythingmcp/main/docker-compose.quickstart.yml
printf 'JWT_SECRET=%s\nENCRYPTION_KEY=%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:3000 to register. Keep the .env file, especially ENCRYPTION_KEY, because it is needed to decrypt stored connector credentials. See the README and deployment guide for setup details.

Alternatives

• mcp-gateway: Unlike AnythingMCP’s ready-made connectors for many backend types, mcp-gateway focuses on combining MCP servers and REST APIs behind a compact, on-demand tool surface.

Considerations

• Self-hosting requires Node.js 22.15 or later, or the provided Docker setup. The quickstart image is currently amd64-only and runs on Apple Silicon through emulation.
• The quickstart binds to localhost and does not terminate TLS. A publicly reachable deployment needs the fuller setup described in the deployment guide.
• Losing the generated encryption key means stored connector credentials must be entered again.
• The repository is actively maintained, with frequent commits and releases, and contributions from multiple people. The supplied health data also indicates recent issue and pull request activity.
• The project is licensed under AGPL-3.0. The README says commercial use within a company is included, but offering a modified version over a network triggers copyleft obligations. Review the license FAQ for details.
• The README notes that some catalog adapters are based on vendor documentation and have not yet been tested against live tenants. SOAP signed WS-Security messages are not supported.
• The supplied repository facts do not indicate a test suite, so teams should evaluate their own validation needs before production adoption.