claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix Feature request: Allow MCP servers from managed plugins in allowedMcpServers [1 comments, 2 participants]

Problem

There is currently no way for enterprise admins to say "allow MCP servers that come from managed plugins, block everything else."

allowedMcpServers: [] in managed settings blocks all MCP servers including plugin-provided ones (which use the plugin:<name>:<server> naming convention). The colon in those names also cannot be used in serverName entries due to validation (#32882, #32883). The result: you can either allow all MCP servers or block all of them — there is no middle ground that respects the managed plugin trust boundary already established by strictKnownMarketplaces.

Proposed solution

Add a sentinel value to allowedMcpServers that allows any MCP server registered by an enabled plugin from an approved marketplace:

{
  "strictKnownMarketplaces": [
    { "source": "github", "repo": "my-org/plugins" }
  ],
  "allowedMcpServers": [
    { "source": "managedPlugins" }
  ]
}

This would allow plugin MCPs through while blocking anything a user adds manually via claude mcp add.

Why this matters

strictKnownMarketplaces already establishes a trust boundary at the plugin level. MCP servers bundled by those plugins should be able to inherit that trust. Today there is no mechanism to express this, leaving a gap where manually-added MCP servers from arbitrary sources cannot be blocked without also breaking all plugin MCPs.