cordon-cli

cordon-cli

The command-line interface for Cordon, the security gateway for MCP tool calls.

Install

npm install -g cordon-cli

Quickstart

cordon init      # reads your Claude Desktop config, generates cordon.config.ts,
                 # patches Claude Desktop to route tool calls through Cordon
cordon start     # launches the gateway

Restart Claude Desktop after cordon init. Every MCP tool call now flows through Cordon.

What it does

• Scans claude_desktop_config.json and generates a starter cordon.config.ts
• Patches your MCP client config to route through Cordon (opt-in, backed up)
• Runs the gateway as an MCP server that aggregates your existing upstream servers
• Enforces per-tool policies (allow, block, approve, read-only, log-only, hidden, sql-read-only, sql-approve-writes)
• Supports closed-world tool catalogs via knownTools so new upstream tools don't silently become callable
• SQL-aware policies parse the statement in tool-call args and decide based on type (SELECT vs DML vs DDL)
• Surfaces approval prompts in the terminal, or Slack via the hosted dashboard

Config example

import { defineConfig } from 'cordon-sdk';

export default defineConfig({
  servers: [
    {
      name: 'database',
      transport: 'stdio',
      command: 'npx',
      args: ['-y', '@modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres', process.env.POSTGRES_URL!],
      policy: 'read-only',
      // Optional: declare the exact tool surface you expect. New tools in
      // future upstream releases get blocked until you add them here.
      knownTools: ['query', 'list_tables', 'describe_table'],
    },
  ],
  audit: { enabled: true, output: 'file' },
  approvals: { channel: 'terminal', timeoutMs: 60_000 },
});

Full documentation

Complete policy reference, approval channels, audit outputs, and architecture overview: https://github.com/marras0914/cordon

Writeup with real-world examples: https://dev.to/marras0914/mcp-has-no-security-model-heres-how-to-fix-it-in-2-minutes-5f7o

License

MIT