T-IA Connect + AgentGateway — Industrial Zero-Trust MCP

MCP_HACK//26 Submission — Solo.io & a16z Hackathon

AI-powered TIA Portal with an industrial-grade Zero-Trust proxy. T-IA Connect exposes Siemens TIA Portal as an MCP server — AgentGateway secures every single call.

Demo Video

Blog Post

T-IA Connect + AgentGateway: Industrial Zero-Trust AI in Action

Quick Overview for Judges

What: An AI agent (Claude) that creates, configures and manages Siemens TIA Portal PLC projects — with every MCP call routed through AgentGateway for Zero-Trust security.

Why: In industrial automation, AI agents interacting with PLCs need strict guardrails. A single unauthorized command (stopping a CPU, closing a project) can halt a production line. AgentGateway adds the missing security layer.

How:

Claude Code (CLI) → AgentGateway (port 4000) → T-IA Connect (port 9000 SSE)
                                              → T-IA Connect REST (OpenAPI → MCP)

Key Results:

• 190+ MCP tools exposed from TIA Portal (SSE + OpenAPI merged)
• Zero-Trust policy enforcement — blocked tools disappear from the agent's view
• Full audit logging of every AI action
• Real-time demo: project creation, CPU config, ladder logic — all via natural language

Architecture

Components

Two Backends, One Endpoint

AgentGateway merges two backends into a single MCP endpoint:

• siemens-tia-portal_* — Native SSE tools from T-IA Connect
• tia-openapi_* — Full REST API auto-converted to MCP tools via OpenAPI spec

Deployment

Prerequisites

• Windows 10/11 with Docker Desktop
• Siemens TIA Portal V20 (with Openness API enabled)
• T-IA Connect v2.0.335+ running on port 9000
• Claude Code CLI

1. AgentGateway Configuration

See agent-gateway.yaml for the full configuration.

Key features:

• SSE backend pointing to host.docker.internal:9000 (Docker→Windows bridge)
• OpenAPI backend with recursive-ref-free spec (tia-openapi3-norec.json)
• CORS configured for Playground UI
• Host: localhost:9000 header override (required by Windows HTTP.sys)

2. Start AgentGateway

docker run -d --name agent-gateway --restart always \
  -p 4000:4000 -p 15000:15000 \
  -e ADMIN_ADDR=0.0.0.0:15000 \
  -v "$(pwd)/agent-gateway.yaml:/config.yaml" \
  -v "$(pwd)/tia-openapi3-norec.json:/tia-openapi3-norec.json" \
  ghcr.io/agentgateway/agentgateway:v1.0.0-alpha.2 -f /config.yaml

Important: Use v1.0.0-alpha.2 specifically. The latest tag causes stack overflow on OpenAPI specs with recursive references.

3. Configure Claude Code

In your .claude.json, add the MCP server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tia-connect": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://localhost:4000/mcp"
    }
  }
}

4. Verify

• Open AgentGateway Playground: http://localhost:15000/ui
• Check that both backends are connected
• Call tia-openapi_Health_Ping to verify TIA Portal connectivity

Zero-Trust Policy Example

Block the close_project tool so no AI agent can close a TIA Portal project:

policies:
  mcpAuthorization:
    rules:
    - deny: mcp.tool.name == "close_project"

Once applied, the tool disappears from the agent's tool list entirely. No error, no bypass — it simply doesn't exist from the agent's perspective.

OpenAPI Spec Processing

The TIA Portal REST API spec contains recursive $ref references that cause stack overflow in AgentGateway. We provide a script to remove them:

node fix-recursive-refs.js
# Input: tia-openapi3-slim.json (622KB, 146 paths)
# Output: tia-openapi3-norec.json (368KB, no recursive refs)

See fix-recursive-refs.js for details.

Related AgentGateway issues: #132, #224

Known Limitations

• Hot reload not supported: Policy changes require a container restart (alpha software)
• OpenAPI recursive refs: Must be pre-processed with fix-recursive-refs.js
• Windows only: T-IA Connect requires Windows + TIA Portal (Openness API is Windows-native)

Tech Stack

• Siemens TIA Portal V20 — Openness API
• T-IA Connect v2.0.335 — Industrial MCP Server (t-ia-connect.com)
• AgentGateway v1.0.0-alpha.2 — Solo.io
• Claude Code — Anthropic CLI

Links

• T-IA Connect: feelautom.fr
• AgentGateway: github.com/agentgateway/agentgateway
• Demo Video: YouTube
• Blog Post: feelautom.fr/blog

Author: Franck Pichard — feelautom.fr