Hub administration

MCP Yard has tools of its own, to watch and nurse the hub from an agent. They are served in /mcp like any server’s tools, as the yard server, but only to keys that are explicitly allowed to administer the hub.

Allowing a key

Open the key in the web UI and switch on Hub administration. The key then sees the yard-* tools next to its servers’ tools, on the same connection. Behind the switch, the key’s servers simply include yard; the * of “all servers” never does, so no key administers the hub by accident.

The key should…	Servers	Hub administration
use tools only	its servers, or all	off
use tools and manage the hub	its servers, or all	on
only watch and manage the hub	none	on

A key manages the servers it reaches. A key that reaches no server is a pure supervision key: it sees no server tools and manages every server.

An assistant that reads mail or web pages could be talked into calling tools it has. The yard tools can restart servers and install package versions, so allow administration only where it is needed.

Tools

Tool	Does
yard-overview	The dashboard in one call: servers healthy or needing care, tools, calls of the last 24 hours, updates ready, the last health check; plus the keys and the security check for a key that manages every server.
yard-read_logs	The logs, newest first: MCP calls, web UI actions, servers output and errors, filtered by kind, server and text.
yard-list_servers	State, last error, tool count and package versions of every managed server.
yard-get_server	One server in detail, with each tool and whether the configuration exposes it.
yard-restart_server	Restarts a server, waits up to 30 seconds for it to settle, returns its status.
yard-disable_server	Switches a server off, like the switch in the web UI: stopped, tools hidden, kept across restarts.
yard-enable_server	Switches it back on and waits up to 30 seconds for it to settle.
yard-health_check	Pings every managed server over MCP; returns who answers, how fast, or the error.
yard-check_updates	Asks the registries now; returns the managed servers with an update ready.
yard-update_all	Updates every managed hub-owned package that has a newer version.
yard-update_server	Updates a hub-owned package to a version, or the latest; pass the previous version to roll back.
yard-set_title	Sets or removes the title the web UI shows for a server, in the server file. Tool names do not change.
yard-reload_config	Re-reads the server file and applies it; returns the added, removed and restarted servers.

A key that manages only some servers sees only their lines in yard-read_logs and their figures in yard-overview; the keys, the security check and the hub’s own lines are for keys that manage every server. Keys are listed with their name, prefix, scope and last use, never their token or hash.

A yard-list_servers entry looks like this:

{
  "name": "time",
  "source": { "pypi": "mcp-server-time" },
  "enabled": true,
  "switchedOff": false,
  "state": "ready",
  "tools": 2,
  "package": { "pinned": false, "installed": "2026.8.18", "latest": { "version": "2026.10.10", "checkedAt": "2026-10-12T09:00:00.000Z" }, "updating": false }
}

States are installing, starting, ready, degraded (was ready, reconnecting), failed (never got ready, retrying) and stopped. enabled is false when the server file disables the server or when it is switched off; switchedOff tells the second case apart.

Updates from an agent

yard-update_server runs the same flow as the Update button: the new version installs into its own directory, starts next to the running one, and takes over only once it answers. The call returns when the switch is done, which can take a few minutes for a first install. If anything fails, the running version keeps serving and the tool returns the error. Pinned servers refuse updates: change their version in the file and reload instead.

Narrowing an admin key

The key’s tool filter applies to the yard tools like to any other:

• { "allow": ["yard-list_*", "yard-get_*"] } with no servers gives a read-only monitoring key.
• { "deny": ["yard-update_*"] } keeps everything but package updates, one by one or all at once.
• { "deny": ["yard-enable_*", "yard-disable_*"] } keeps the server switches in the web UI only.
• yard-reload_config works only for keys that manage every server, since a reload can touch any of them.

Turning it off

Settings → Hub administration, or MCPYARD_ADMIN_TOOLS=false, removes the yard tools from every key at once. Connected clients are told their tool list changed.

Calls appear in the audit log like any tool call, with their yard- name.