CuratedMCP

Control Plane Architecture

CuratedMCP splits MCP governance into two layers: a control plane that manages policies, users, and audit logs — and a data plane where MCP servers and AI assistants actually run. Your data never leaves your infrastructure.

The Two-Layer Model

The separation of control plane and data plane is a proven pattern in enterprise infrastructure (Kubernetes, cloud platforms, service meshes). CuratedMCP applies the same pattern to MCP governance:

Control Plane

Runs on CuratedMCP infrastructure (curatedmcp.com). Manages policies, deployment configs, user access, and audit logs.

Responsibilities:

  • • Server approval policies
  • • RBAC & team management
  • • Configuration versioning
  • • Policy deployment to data planes
  • • Audit log aggregation & export
  • • Access revocation commands

Stateless policy engine

Data Plane

Runs in your infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP, on-premises). Hosts MCP servers, AI assistants, and your internal APIs.

Responsibilities:

  • • Running MCP servers
  • • Running AI clients (Claude, Cursor, Windsurf)
  • • Enforcing policies from control plane
  • • Logging metadata (not data) back to control plane
  • • Keeping credentials local
  • • Responding to policy updates

Stateful execution engine

How Data Flows

Policy Sync (Down)

You configure an approval policy in the CuratedMCP dashboard (e.g., "Only database servers can read production databases"). This policy is immediately pushed to all your data planes.

POST /sync-policies Content-Type: application/json Authorization: Bearer...

Tool Execution (Local)

An engineer runs a tool in Claude or Cursor (running in your data plane). The MCP gateway checks the local policy cache and either allows, denies, or requires human approval.

✓ Tool execution (policy allows) ✗ Denied (policy rejects) 🔔 Approval needed (e.g., delete_user)

Audit Logging (Up)

After execution, metadata (tool name, user, timestamp, status) is logged back to CuratedMCP for audit and compliance. Tool arguments and API responses are NOT logged to CuratedMCP.

tool: "query_database" user: "alice@example.com" timestamp: "2024-01-15T14:32:05Z" status: "success"

Security & Data Residency

Stays in Your VPC

  • ✓ API keys & credentials
  • ✓ Tool input parameters
  • ✓ Database query results
  • ✓ Internal API responses
  • ✓ PII & sensitive data
  • ✓ All tool execution

Sent to CuratedMCP

  • ✓ Policy confirmations
  • ✓ Audit fact (metadata only)
  • ✓ Tool name / status code
  • ✓ User ID / timestamp
  • ✗ NOT tool arguments
  • ✗ NOT API responses

Zero Data Plane Exposure

CuratedMCP is a governance and compliance layer, not a data proxy. Your MCP servers talk directly to your internal APIs and databases with your credentials. CuratedMCP never sees any actual data — only policy decisions and audit facts.

Deployment Models

Hosted Gateway (Today)

CuratedMCP hosts the MCP gateway for you. You give us a list of servers you approve. Engineers download a config and get access instantly. Audit logs stream back to your dashboard.

Simple to deploy — copy one JSON snippet to your team
CuratedMCP is the gateway; metadata and audit logs live there

Self-Hosted Gateway (Roadmap)

Deploy the MCP gateway as a Docker container inside your own AWS, Azure, or GCP account. The gateway enforces policies, runs servers, and logs metadata — all in your network. Only policy summaries sync back to CuratedMCP.

Maximum data residency control — everything stays in your VPC
Full offline mode — data plane can operate without CuratedMCP

Why This Architecture Matters

Data Privacy

No sensitive data ever transits through CuratedMCP. Your CISO can audit exactly what we see.

Compliance

Audit logs stay in your infrastructure by default. Export to CuratedMCP dashboard for analysis and SOC 2 reporting.

Instant Policy Updates

Change a policy in the dashboard, it syncs to all data planes in seconds. No deployments, no downtime.

Offline Resilience

Data planes can work offline. If CuratedMCP goes down, your MCP servers keep running with cached policies.

Scalability

Add data planes for each region, team, or customer without re-architecting the control plane.

Vendor Independence

Self-hosted gateway means you can eventually run MCP governance entirely independently of CuratedMCP.

Architecture Roadmap

Today: Hosted Gateway

CuratedMCP hosts the MCP gateway. Engineers download a config. Policy decisions and audit logs flow through our infrastructure.

Near-term: Self-Hosted Gateway

Deploy the gateway as a Docker container in your VPC. All tool execution and policy enforcement happens in your infrastructure. Metadata aggregation syncs back to CuratedMCP.

Future: Full Data Plane Autonomy

Data planes can operate entirely independently. CuratedMCP becomes optional for policy version control and compliance reporting, not required for execution.

Ready to explore the control plane?

Start with our hosted gateway, or request a briefing to discuss self-hosted deployment for your org.