Harbor: An MCP Gateway That Connects AI Clients to Backend APIs via Tools

Harbor is an open-source MCP (Model Context Protocol) gateway that bridges AI clients (like Claude, Cursor, or VS Code with Copilot) to backend APIs by exposing them as MCP tools. Developed by Vijaydeep Sinha, Harbor allows AI clients to discover available APIs and call them as tools through the MCP protocol, eliminating the need for complex, point-to-point API configurations.

For everyday users, this means more powerful and streamlined AI applications. Developers can use Harbor to build apps that combine multiple AI services — like translation, image recognition, or data retrieval — without deep technical complexity. By standardizing API connections via MCP, Harbor can lead to more capable and user-friendly AI tools across various platforms.

The project is built with a plugin-based architecture, supporting multiple transports (like SSE and Streamable HTTP) and dynamic tool registration. It is available as a Docker container for easy deployment. If you're a developer interested in trying Harbor, you can find the open-source code on GitHub. The project is still in its early stages, but it's a promising tool for simplifying AI-to-API integrations.