Getting Started with the Remote MCP Server

Overview

The Britive Remote MCP Server is a hosted endpoint on your own tenant that AI assistants can connect to. Point a client at it, sign in with Britive, and the assistant can work with your access using your identity and your existing policies.

What you’ll learn:

How to find your MCP endpoint URL
How to connect Claude, Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, or any MCP client
How to authenticate an assistant that has no browser
How to verify the connection is working

Before You Begin

Your tenant name — the subdomain of your Britive URL. See Finding Your Tenant Name if you’re not sure what to enter
An MCP client that supports remote servers over HTTP — Claude (desktop or web), Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, or equivalent
A Britive identity you can sign in as. Nothing extra needs enabling on your account — if you can sign in to the console, you can connect

Note: The endpoint is your tenant hostname with /mcp appended. For the tenant acme, that is https://acme.britive-app.com/mcp. Replace acme with your own tenant name throughout this tutorial.

Connect Your Client

The URL is the same for every client — only where you paste it differs.

Open connector settings

In Claude, go to Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector.

Name it and paste the URL

Field	Value
Name	`Britive`
Remote MCP server URL	`https://acme.britive-app.com/mcp`

Connect and sign in

Click Connect. Claude opens your browser to Britive. Sign in as you normally would, including any MFA your organization requires, then return to Claude.

Start a new conversation

Connectors load per conversation. Open a fresh one and enable the Britive connector from the tools menu.

Add the server

claude mcp add --transport http britive https://acme.britive-app.com/mcp

Log in

Start Claude Code and run /mcp. Select britive, then Authenticate. Your browser opens to Britive; sign in and return to the terminal.

Confirm it connected

Run /mcp again. The server is listed as connected, with a tool count beside it.

Add the server

codex mcp add britive --url https://acme.britive-app.com/mcp

This writes an [mcp_servers.britive] entry to ~/.codex/config.toml. You can add it there by hand instead:

~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.britive]
url = "https://acme.britive-app.com/mcp"

Log in

codex mcp login britive

Codex opens your browser to Britive. Sign in, including any MFA your organization requires, and Codex stores the token locally.

Confirm it connected

codex mcp list

The britive server is listed with its authentication status.

Note: If Codex reports that it only picked up stdio servers, your release predates streamable HTTP support being enabled by default. Add experimental_use_rmcp_client = true to ~/.codex/config.toml, or upgrade Codex.

Add the server

Add the endpoint to your OpenCode config, either globally or in your project’s opencode.json:

opencode.json

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "mcp": {
    "britive": {
      "type": "remote",
      "url": "https://acme.britive-app.com/mcp",
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

OpenCode detects OAuth on remote servers automatically and registers itself, so no client ID or secret is needed.

Log in

opencode mcp auth britive

Your browser opens to Britive. Sign in, and OpenCode stores the tokens in ~/.local/share/opencode/mcp-auth.json.

Confirm it connected

opencode mcp list

The britive server is listed with its authentication status. If it is failing, opencode mcp debug britive reports why.

The endpoint is a standard remote MCP server. Configure your client with:

Setting	Value
Transport	Streamable HTTP
URL	`https://acme.britive-app.com/mcp`
Authentication	OAuth 2.0 — discovered automatically from the endpoint

Clients that support OAuth need nothing further: they find the authorization server themselves and open your browser to Britive.

To test the endpoint by hand, MCP Inspector speaks the same protocol and runs the same sign-in.

An agent that cannot open a browser authenticates with a Britive token instead.

Create a service identity

In the Britive console, create a service identity for the agent and issue it a token. Scope it to only the access the agent needs.

Pass the token as a bearer credential

Static API tokens, workload federation tokens, and OAuth tokens all travel in the same header. Use Bearer for all of them, whatever the credential type.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http britive https://acme.britive-app.com/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $BRITIVE_API_TOKEN"

Codex — name the environment variable and let Codex read it at runtime:

~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.britive]
url = "https://acme.britive-app.com/mcp"
bearer_token_env_var = "BRITIVE_API_TOKEN"

OpenCode — turn off OAuth detection so it does not try the browser flow first:

opencode.json

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "mcp": {
    "britive": {
      "type": "remote",
      "url": "https://acme.britive-app.com/mcp",
      "oauth": false,
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer {env:BRITIVE_API_TOKEN}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Read the token from your secret store or an environment variable. Never commit it to a configuration file.

Verify

Confirm the connection with two questions, in this order.

Ask who you are

Who am I in Britive?

The assistant returns your username and identity type. If it names you, your credential reached Britive and was accepted.

Ask what access you have

What Britive profiles can I check out?

You get your eligible profile s and their environment s — the same list you see under My Access in the console.

An empty list is a real answer, not a failure. It means your identity is eligible for no profiles; check My Access in the console to confirm.

Troubleshoot

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Client cannot reach the server	Wrong URL	Use the console hostname with `/mcp` appended and no trailing slash
Sign-in succeeds, then immediately asks again	Signed in to a different tenant than the connector points at	Confirm both hostnames match, then remove and re-add the connector
No browser opens for sign-in	Client only starts the flow on demand	Claude Code: `/mcp` → Authenticate. Codex: `codex mcp login britive`. OpenCode: `opencode mcp auth britive`. Claude: reconnect the connector
Static token rejected	Wrong header form, or an expired or disabled identity	Use `Authorization: Bearer <token>`; confirm the token works elsewhere, such as with `pybritive`
Connection drops after inactivity	Token expired on its normal schedule	Reconnect — the client re-runs the flow, usually silently
Codex ignores the server entirely	Release predates streamable HTTP being on by default	Add `experimental_use_rmcp_client = true` to `~/.codex/config.toml`, or upgrade Codex
Only a handful of tools appear	Your identity holds no administrative access	Expected — see Tool Reference

Next Steps

Everyday Use — ask for access, handle approvals, and check in when you are done
Tool Reference — every tool the assistant can use on your behalf

Last updated on September 3, 2026

Requesting Access from an Assistant