Add Tools
A workspace’s power comes from the tools inside it. You can add MCP servers from the marketplace, your own external servers, workflow skills, and community functions. Every tool you add is instantly available to all connected clients.
How Adding Tools Works
When you add a server to a workspace, its tools become part of the workspace’s unified tool list. A client calling tools/list on the gateway sees tools from all enabled servers merged together. Adding or removing a server takes effect immediately — no restarts, no redeployments.
Types of Tools
| Type | Source | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Community MCP Servers | Published on the Aerostack Hub marketplace | GitHub, Stripe, Notion, Linear |
| External MCP Servers | Your own MCP server running anywhere | A custom server at https://my-api.com/mcp |
| Skills | Workflow-powered tools deployed to Aerostack | A “daily digest” skill that aggregates data |
| Functions | Community functions from the marketplace | A currency converter, a sentiment analyzer |
Add a Server via Dashboard
Open Your Workspace
Navigate to Workspaces in the Admin dashboard and select the workspace you want to add tools to.
Browse Available Servers
Click Add Server. You will see a list of available MCP servers — community servers from the marketplace, your own published servers, and any team servers shared with you.
Select a Server
Click a server to add it. If the server requires API keys or tokens to function, you will be prompted to configure secrets.
Configure Secrets (If Needed)
If the server needs credentials (for example, a GitHub server needs a GITHUB_TOKEN), select which workspace secrets to inject. You can create new secrets on the spot or use existing ones.
Done
The server is added and its tools are immediately available to all connected clients. There is no need to reconnect or restart anything — the next tools/list call will include the new tools.
Add a Server via CLI
# Add a community MCP server by its slug
aerostack workspace server add my-workspace @aerostack/github
# Add with secret injection
aerostack workspace server add my-workspace @aerostack/github --secrets GITHUB_TOKEN
# Add a community function (auto-wrapped as a tool)
aerostack workspace function add my-workspace my-function-slugTool Namespacing
When multiple servers expose tools with the same name (for example, both a GitHub and GitLab server might have a create_issue tool), collisions would occur. The gateway prevents this by namespacing every tool:
{serverSlug}__{toolName}Examples:
| Server Slug | Original Tool | Namespaced Tool |
|---|---|---|
github | create_issue | github__create_issue |
gitlab | create_issue | gitlab__create_issue |
stripe | create_customer | stripe__create_customer |
my-function | run | my-function__run |
The double underscore (__) is the delimiter. When you call tools/call with the namespaced name, the gateway strips the prefix, routes to the correct upstream server, and returns the result.
You always use the namespaced tool name when calling tools. LLM clients like Claude Desktop and Cursor handle this automatically — they see the namespaced names in the tool list and use them in calls.
Enable and Disable Servers
You can temporarily disable a server without removing it from the workspace. A disabled server’s tools are excluded from tools/list and tools/call.
This is useful when:
- A server is misbehaving and you want to isolate it
- You want to limit a bot’s tool access without reconfiguring the workspace
- You are testing and want to toggle tools on and off
Dashboard
Open the workspace, find the server in the list, and toggle the Enabled switch.
CLI
# Disable a server
aerostack workspace server disable my-workspace github
# Re-enable it
aerostack workspace server enable my-workspace githubReorder Servers
Control the display order of servers in your workspace. The order affects how tools appear in the merged tool list.
Each server has a display_order value (0 to 9999, lower numbers first). Update it from the dashboard by dragging servers, or via the CLI:
aerostack workspace server reorder my-workspace github --order 0
aerostack workspace server reorder my-workspace stripe --order 1
aerostack workspace server reorder my-workspace notion --order 2Remove a Server
Removing a server from a workspace removes the link only. The MCP server itself is not deleted — you can re-add it later.
Dashboard
Open the workspace, find the server, and click the Remove button.
CLI
aerostack workspace server remove my-workspace githubRemoving a server immediately removes its tools from the workspace. Any in-progress tool calls to that server may fail.
Test Server Connectivity
Before relying on a server, verify that it is reachable and responding correctly.
Dashboard
Open the workspace, find the server, and click Test Connection. The dashboard shows whether the server is reachable and lists the tools it exposes.
CLI
aerostack workspace server test my-workspace githubServer: github
Status: OK
Tools: 5
- create_issue
- list_repos
- search_code
- get_pr
- merge_prIf the test fails, the output includes the error (for example, HTTP 401: Unauthorized if the server’s API key is wrong or missing).
Visibility Rules
Not every server can be added to every workspace:
| Server Visibility | Who Can Add It |
|---|---|
| Public | Anyone |
| Private | Only the server owner |
| Team | The server owner and their active team members |
If you try to add a server you do not have access to, the dashboard shows an error and the CLI returns a 403 status.
Limits
| Plan | Max Servers per Workspace |
|---|---|
| Free | 5 |
| Starter | 15 |
| Pro | 50 |
| Business | 200 |
| Enterprise | Unlimited |
When you reach the limit, you need to remove an existing server or upgrade your plan to add more.
Instant Propagation
Changes to a workspace’s tool configuration propagate immediately. There is no cache delay and no need to restart connected clients. The next tools/list or tools/call request will reflect the updated configuration.
This means you can:
- Add a new server and use its tools immediately
- Disable a misbehaving server and stop it from being called
- Rotate a secret and have it take effect on the next tool call