AI & MCP
Private server OAuth on Gram: Safe and simple MCP access for your team
Walker Lockard
January 8, 2026 - 2 min read
As AI agents become standard tools within organizations, platform teams face a new challenge: how do you give everyone access to the same MCP servers without managing credentials for each person? The answer increasingly looks like a centralized MCP gateway where one team manages servers, environments, and API keys while everyone else just connects and works.
Gram’s private servers already solve the hosting side of this problem. Today, we’re adding the last piece: Gram OAuth lets your team members authenticate with your org’s MCP servers using standard auth methods like Google SSO instead of needing to provision & manage API keys.
The MCP gateway pattern
When an organization adopts MCP, the typical path starts with individual developers running their own servers. This works fine at small scale, but creates problems as usage grows: duplicated credentials across machines, no visibility into what’s being accessed, and no way to revoke access when someone leaves.
MCP platforms like Gram offer a centralized alternative. A platform team hosts all the org’s MCP servers on Gram, configures the credentials once, and shares access with everyone who needs it. Users connect to the shared servers without needing to manage API keys themselves.
How Gram OAuth works
When a user connects to a private MCP server with Gram OAuth enabled:
- They’re prompted to sign in to Gram
- They authenticate with Google, email, or their preferred method
- Gram issues OAuth tokens automatically via the standard DCR flow
- They gain access to the server without ever seeing an API key
The experience is identical to signing in to any other service. For administrators, onboarding is just adding someone to the organization.
Getting started
To enable Gram OAuth on a private server:
- Navigate to your private MCP server in the Gram dashboard
- Enable Gram OAuth in the authentication settings
- Add team members to your Gram organization
- Share the server connection details with your team
For detailed configuration options, see the private server authentication documentation .
Questions about Gram OAuth or need help setting up private servers for your team? Book time with our team