Example FastMCP MCP Server with Auth0 Integration

This is a practical example of securing a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server with Auth0 using the FastMCP TypeScript framework. It demonstrates real-world OAuth 2.0 and OIDC integration with JWT token verification and scope enforcement.

Available Tools

The server exposes the following tools:

• whoami - Returns authenticated user information and granted scopes
• greet - Personalized greeting demonstrating authenticated tool access
• get_datetime - Returns the current UTC date and time (no scope required)

Install dependencies

Install the dependencies using npm:

npm install

Auth0 Tenant Setup

Pre-requisites:

1. Auth0 CLI: This guide uses Auth0 CLI to configure an Auth0 tenant for secure MCP tool access. If you don't have it, you can follow the Auth0 CLI installation instructions to set it up. Alternatively, all the following configuration steps can be done through the Auth0 Management Dashboard.

2. Enable Resource Parameter Compatibility Profile: The Model Context Protocol (MCP) specification requires the use of the standards-compliant resource parameter as defined in RFC 8707. To use the resource parameter in your access tokens, you need to enable the compatibility profile. Follow the Enable Resource Parameter Compatibility Profile to enable it.

Step 1: Authenticate with Auth0 CLI

First, you need to log in to the Auth0 CLI with the correct scopes to manage all the necessary resources.

1. Run the login command: This command will open a browser window for you to authenticate. We are requesting a set of scopes to configure APIs, roles, and clients.

auth0 login --scopes "read:client_grants,create:client_grants,delete:client_grants,read:clients,create:clients,update:clients,read:resource_servers,create:resource_servers,update:resource_servers,read:roles,create:roles,update:roles,update:tenant_settings,read:connections,update:connections"

1. Verify your tenant: After logging in, confirm you are operating on the tenant you want to configure.

auth0 tenants list

Step 2: Configure Tenant Settings

Next, enable tenant-level flags required for Dynamic Client Registration (DCR) and an improved user consent experience.

• enable_dynamic_client_registration: Allows MCP tools to register themselves as applications automatically. Learn more
• use_scope_descriptions_for_consent: Shows user-friendly descriptions for scopes on the consent screen. Learn more.

Execute the following command to enable the above mentioned flags through the tenant settings:

auth0 tenant-settings update set flags.enable_dynamic_client_registration flags.use_scope_descriptions_for_consent

Step 3: Promote Connections to Domain Level

Learn more about promoting connections to domain level.

1. List your connections to get their IDs: auth0 api get connections
2. From the list, identify only the connections that should be available to be used with third party applications. For each of those specific connection IDs, run the following command to mark it as a domain-level connection. Replace YOUR_CONNECTION_ID with the actual ID (e.g., con_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX)

auth0 api patch connections/YOUR_CONNECTION_ID --data '{"is_domain_connection": true}'

Step 4: Configure the API

This step creates the API (also known as a Resource Server) that represents your protected MCP Server and sets it as the default for your tenant.

1. Create the API: This command registers the API with Auth0, defines its signing algorithm, enables Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), and specifies the available scopes. Replace http://localhost:3001/ and MCP Tools API with your desired identifier and name. Add your tool-specific scopes to the scopes array.

   Note that rfc9068_profile_authz is used instead of rfc9068_profile as the token dialect to enable RBAC. Learn more

auth0 api post resource-servers --data '{
  "identifier": "http://localhost:3001/",
  "name": "MCP Tools API",
  "signing_alg": "RS256",
  "token_dialect": "rfc9068_profile_authz",
  "enforce_policies": true,
  "scopes": [
    {"value": "tool:whoami", "description": "Access the WhoAmI tool"},
    {"value": "tool:greet", "description": "Access the Greeting tool"}
  ]
}'

Step 5: Configure RBAC Roles and Permissions

Now, set up roles and assign permissions to them. This allows you to control which users can access which tools, using the core Auth0 RBAC features. If you want to learn how to implement authorization using Auth0 FGA, check the FastMCP FGA example.

1. Create Roles: For each role you need (e.g., "Tool Administrator", "Tool User"), run the create command.

# Example for an admin role
auth0 roles create --name "Tool Administrator" --description "Grants access to all MCP tools"

# Example for a basic user role
auth0 roles create --name "Tool User" --description "Grants access to basic MCP tools"

1. Assign Permissions to Roles: After creating roles, note the ID from the output (e.g. rol_) and and assign the API permissions to it. Replace YOUR_ROLE_ID, http://localhost:3001/, and the list of scopes.

# Example for admin role (all scopes)
auth0 roles permissions add YOUR_ADMIN_ROLE_ID --api-id "http://localhost:3001/" --permissions "tool:whoami,tool:greet"

# Example for user role (one scope)
auth0 roles permissions add YOUR_USER_ROLE_ID --api-id "http://localhost:3001/" --permissions "tool:whoami"

1. Assign Roles to Users: Find users and assign them to the roles.

# Find a user's ID
auth0 users search --query "email:\"example@google.com\""

# Assign the role using the user's ID and the role's ID
auth0 users roles assign "auth0|USER_ID_HERE" --roles "YOUR_ROLE_ID_HERE"

Note: Further customization not supported out of the box by RBAC can be done via a custom Post-Login action trigger.

Configuration

Rename .env.example to .env and configure the domain and audience:

# Auth0 tenant domain
AUTH0_DOMAIN=example-tenant.us.auth0.com

# Auth0 API Identifier
AUTH0_AUDIENCE=http://localhost:3001/

# Optional: MCP Server URL (required when using ngrok or other reverse proxies)
# For local development, this defaults to http://localhost:PORT
# When using ngrok, set this to your ngrok URL (e.g., https://abc123.ngrok.io)
MCP_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:3001

With the configuration in place, the example can be started by running:

npm run start

Using with ngrok

To expose your MCP server to the internet (e.g., for testing with external clients), you can use ngrok:

1. Start your MCP server:

   npm run start
   

2. Start ngrok in a separate terminal:

   ngrok http 3001
   

3. Update your .env file with the ngrok URL:

   MCP_SERVER_URL=https://abc123.ngrok.io
   

   Replace abc123.ngrok.io with your actual ngrok URL.

4. Restart your MCP server to pick up the new configuration.

The server will automatically use the ngrok URL for OAuth discovery endpoints and resource metadata URLs. The WWW-Authenticate header will include the correct resource_metadata URL pointing to your ngrok tunnel.

Note: If you're using a free ngrok account, the URL will change each time you restart ngrok. You'll need to update MCP_SERVER_URL accordingly. For production use, consider using ngrok's static domain feature or a permanent tunnel solution.

Auth0 Configuration for ngrok

Important: You typically do NOT need to change your Auth0 API identifier (audience) when using ngrok. Here's why:

1. AUTH0_AUDIENCE stays the same: The AUTH0_AUDIENCE (API identifier) is just an identifier - it doesn't need to match your actual server URL. You can keep it as http://localhost:3001/ even when using ngrok. The important thing is that:

   • Tokens are issued with this audience
   • Your server validates tokens against this audience
   • Both match (which they will if you keep the same value)

2. MCP_SERVER_URL changes: Only MCP_SERVER_URL needs to be updated to your ngrok URL. This is used for:

   • OAuth discovery endpoints (/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource)
   • Resource metadata URLs in authentication responses

3. Scopes don't change: Scopes are independent of URLs and don't need adjustment.

Alternative approach (if you prefer): If you want to use your ngrok URL as the API identifier, you would need to:

• Create a new API in Auth0 with the ngrok URL as the identifier (e.g., https://abc123.ngrok.io/)
• Update AUTH0_AUDIENCE in your .env to match
• Update any role permissions to use the new API identifier

However, this is not recommended for development since ngrok URLs change frequently. It's better to keep AUTH0_AUDIENCE as a stable identifier (like http://localhost:3001/) and only update MCP_SERVER_URL for ngrok.

Testing

Use an MCP client like MCP Inspector to test your server interactively:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector

The server will start up and the UI will be accessible at http://localhost:6274.

In the MCP Inspector:

1. Select Streamable HTTP as the Transport Type
2. Enter http://localhost:3001/mcp as the URL
3. Select Via Proxy for Connection Type
4. Important: You need to provide a valid Auth0 access token as the "Proxy Token".

Getting an Auth0 Access Token for Testing

You can obtain an access token using the Auth0 CLI:

# Get an access token for a user (requires user login)
auth0 test token --audience "http://localhost:3001/" --scopes "openid profile email tool:whoami tool:greet"

This will open a browser for authentication and return an access token. Copy this token and paste it into the "Proxy Token" field in the MCP Inspector.

Note: The token must include the audience matching your AUTH0_AUDIENCE (e.g., http://localhost:3001/) and any required scopes for the tools you want to test.

Using cURL

You can use cURL to verify that the server is running:

# Test that the server is running and accessible - check OAuth resource metadata
curl -v http://localhost:3001/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource

# Test OAuth authorization server metadata endpoint
curl -v http://localhost:3001/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server

# When using ngrok, test with your ngrok URL:
curl -v https://YOUR_NGROK_URL/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server

# Test OPTIONS request (CORS preflight) - check response headers
curl -v -X OPTIONS https://YOUR_NGROK_URL/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server \
  -H "Origin: https://example.com" \
  -H "Access-Control-Request-Method: GET"

# Test OAuth authorization server metadata endpoint
curl -v http://localhost:3001/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server

# When using ngrok, test with your ngrok URL:
curl -v https://YOUR_NGROK_URL/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server

# Test OPTIONS request (CORS preflight) - should return 204 or 200 with CORS headers
curl -v -X OPTIONS https://YOUR_NGROK_URL/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server \
  -H "Origin: https://example.com" \
  -H "Access-Control-Request-Method: GET"

# Test MCP initialization (requires valid Auth0 access token)
curl -X POST http://localhost:3001/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1, "method": "initialize", "params": {"protocolVersion": "2025-06-18", "capabilities": {}, "clientInfo": {"name": "curl-test", "version": "1.0.0"}}}'

# Test get_datetime tool (no scope required) - outputs ISO string like 2025-10-31T14:12:03.123Z
curl -X POST http://localhost:3001/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 2, "method": "tools/call", "params": {"name": "get_datetime", "arguments": {}}}'