[BUG][API]: No tools listed via MCP after adding tool from REST API

[nitin302]

🐞 Bug Summary

Briefly describe the issue or unexpected behavior.

No tools are listed when we "Add New Tool from REST API". It works as expected when tools are added via MCP server but adding any tool via REST API shows no tools.

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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. Add New MCP Server or Gateway. This automatically adds tools listed by the given MCP server.
2. Try to list tools via MCP gateway. This should show all tools correctly.
3. Add New Tool from REST API
4. No tools listed via MCP gateway.

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🤔 Expected Behavior

What should have happened instead?

All tools should be displayed including both added via MCP server and REST API

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📓 Logs / Error Output

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

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🧠 Environment Info

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

Key	Value
Version or commit	1.0.0-BETA-2
Runtime	Python 3.12.10
Platform / OS	macOS
Container	PyPI

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🧩 Additional Context (optional)

Add any configuration details, flags, or related issues.

[crivetimihai]

Thanks for reporting this, @nitin302.

Tools created via POST /tools are stored in the DB (created_via="api") and should appear alongside MCP-discovered tools. The most likely cause is the team-based visibility filter in the tool listing logic (tool_service.py:1799-1840).

When listing tools, the endpoint checks the requesting token's teams claim against each tool's visibility and team_id. If your REST-created tools have visibility set to something other than "public", or have a team_id that doesn't match your token's teams, they'll be filtered out. MCP-discovered tools typically inherit public visibility from the gateway config, which is why they appear.

Could you check:

1. What visibility value your REST-created tools have in the DB:

   SELECT name, visibility, team_id, enabled, reachable, created_via FROM tools WHERE created_via = 'api';

2. Whether your API token includes a teams claim (decode the JWT to verify)
3. Whether explicitly setting "visibility": "public" in the POST /tools request body makes the tools appear

This may be related to #2790 which reports a similar symptom.

[nitin302]

@crivetimihai was able to figure out the issue. It was not anything you had mentioned.

The tool I added had no Input Schema present... so, somehow adding this tool broke /mcp to list tools. After adding Input Schema I was able to see and use the tool (along with other tools added via MCP server).

If you can show errors when adding tools, that will help ensure, all mandatory fields are added correctly and field values are validated for correctness.