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Plug ToolHive into your existing Redis setup, and CIMD in the CLI

This week, the embedded auth server runs on the Redis topology your platform already uses (standalone, cluster, or Sentinel), and the ToolHive CLI authenticates MCP clients without dynamic client registration.

Plug ToolHive into your existing Redis setup​

Whether your platform runs a managed Redis service (which typically handles HA transparently) or self-hosts Redis in one of several topologies, the embedded authorization server can now sit on top of it:

  • Standalone Redis for simpler deployments, including managed Redis services that handle high availability for you.
  • Redis Cluster for sharded scale-out across multiple nodes, common in both managed and self-hosted deployments.
  • Redis Sentinel for HA with automatic failover when you self-host Redis directly.

No more shoehorning a Sentinel topology into a cluster that doesn't otherwise need it, or skipping the embedded auth server because your standard Redis doesn't match. Configure the storage block on your MCPExternalAuthConfig to match the topology you already run. See Redis session storage for the YAML and TLS examples.

ToolHive CLI now supports CIMD​

The MCP authentication spec is shifting from Dynamic Client Registration (DCR) to the Client ID Metadata Document (CIMD) pattern as the preferred way for clients to identify themselves to upstream identity providers. The ToolHive CLI (thv) now supports CIMD, so your clients stay aligned with the upstream direction.

If you've watched your IdP fill up with one-off client registrations for short-lived MCP agents and developer environments, this is a direct fix. Instead of registering each client with the IdP up front, thv presents a hosted metadata document describing itself, and the IdP verifies it on the fly.

Use it when:

  • You're running a short-lived or stateless MCP client and don't want a permanent registration to manage.
  • You want to identify a class of clients (for example, every developer on your team) without registering each one individually.
  • Your IdP supports the draft CIMD spec.

Support for CIMD in the embedded authorization server is still in development; this release lands it in the local CLI experience first.

Getting started​

For detailed release notes, check the project repositories:

You can find all ToolHive documentation on the Stacklok documentation site.