tools-only Management Overview
This section provides operational guidance for running and maintaining a production instance of ContextForge.
Whether you're self-hosting, running in the cloud, or deploying to Kubernetes, this section helps you monitor, back up, and maintain the system.
!!! tip "What's new in 1.0.0-RC-1" Multi‑tenancy (email auth, teams, RBAC, resource visibility) was introduced in v0.9.0 and is fully supported in 1.0.0-RC-1.
- See the [Migration Guide](https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge/blob/main/MIGRATION-0.7.0.md) and [Changelog](https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md)
- Quick enablement (excerpt): `EMAIL_AUTH_ENABLED=true`, `PLATFORM_ADMIN_EMAIL=...`, `AUTO_CREATE_PERSONAL_TEAMS=true`
- Learn more: [Team Management](teams.md), [RBAC](rbac.md)
🧭 What's Covered
| Page | Description |
|---|---|
| Configuration | Complete configuration reference - databases, environment variables, and deployment settings |
| Password Management | Password reset, account unlock, API recovery, and emergency lockout procedures |
| Scaling Guide | 📈 Production Scaling - Horizontal/vertical scaling, Kubernetes HPA, connection pooling, and performance tuning |
| Performance Tuning | Optimize Gunicorn workers, database connections, and container resources |
| Dynamic Client Registration | 🔐 OAuth2 DCR - Automatic client provisioning for streamable HTTP servers |
| Backups | How to persist and restore your database, configs, and resource state |
| Export & Import | Complete configuration management with CLI, API, and Admin UI |
| Export/Import Tutorial | Step-by-step tutorial for getting started with export/import |
| Export/Import Reference | Quick reference guide for export/import commands and APIs |
| Bulk Import | Import multiple tools at once for migrations and team onboarding |
| Metadata Tracking | 📊 NEW - Comprehensive audit trails and entity metadata tracking |
| Well-Known URIs | Configure robots.txt, security.txt, and custom well-known files |
| Logging | Configure structured logging, log destinations, and log rotation |
🔐 Runtime Config via .env
Most operational settings (logging level, database pool size, auth mode) are controlled through .env or environment variables.
!!! info "MariaDB & MySQL Fully Supported" ContextForge now has complete MariaDB/MySQL support alongside SQLite and PostgreSQL:
- **36+ database tables** work perfectly with MariaDB 10.6+ and MySQL 8.0+
- All **VARCHAR length issues** resolved for MariaDB/MySQL compatibility
- Connection string: `DATABASE_URL=mysql+pymysql://mysql:changeme@localhost:3306/mcp`
- See [Configuration Reference](configuration.md) for complete setup instructions
Update the file and restart the container or process to apply changes.
🧪 Health & Readiness
Expose the /health endpoint for use with:
- Cloud load balancer health checks
- Kubernetes probes
- CI/CD smoke tests
Sample check:
curl http://localhost:4444/health
Expected response:
{"status":"healthy"}
🔁 Service Restart Commands
Depending on your environment:
docker restart mcpgatewaykubectl rollout restart deployment/mcpgateway