MCP authorization patterns: Per-tool scopes, consent, and least privilege

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) has emerged as a standard for AI models to interface with business logic, introduced by Anthropic in 2024 and widely adopted by major tech companies and developers. By 2025, it became a vendor-neutral, community-governed standard under the Agentic AI Foundation. A key aspect of MCP is its approach to authorization, focusing on specific permissions for tool access rather than traditional OAuth methods. This involves dynamic client registration, per-tool scopes, and least privilege enforcement, ensuring that AI-driven actions are tightly controlled and audited through tools like WorkOS AuthKit. The protocol requires identity and organizational awareness for each tool invocation, with a shift towards session-scoped authorization to enhance security. As MCP expands, including the introduction of MCP Apps for interactive interfaces, its architecture emphasizes the need for robust, user-specific authorization models to ensure secure and efficient AI interactions.

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