# IBM ContextForge in Best MCP Gateways

**Answer in brief:** Best for a self-hosted registry that federates MCP, agent and REST services.


## Resource role

Self-hosted registry and gateway. ContextForge is an open source registry and proxy that federates MCP servers, agents and REST or gRPC APIs into one endpoint, with governance, discovery and observability.[1] It runs as an MCP server and installs from PyPI or Docker.[1]

Its tools gateway handles MCP, REST and gRPC-to-MCP translation. Its agent gateway routes agent-to-agent traffic and OpenAI-compatible and Anthropic agents. Its API gateway adds rate limits, auth, retries and a reverse proxy for REST services.[1]

More than 40 plugins add transports, protocols and integrations, and OpenTelemetry tracing reports to Phoenix, Jaeger, Zipkin and other backends.[1]

## Relationship to Conecto

IBM ContextForge is a separate resource. Conecto doesn't make it and has no partnership with IBM. Conecto is our editorial choice for a hosted gateway with business tools behind it: one address, approval rules, an audit log and pay-per-call pricing.

## The facts

- License: Apache-2.0[2]
- GitHub stars: 4,770 on November 8, 2026[2]
- Federates: MCP, agent-to-agent, REST and gRPC[1]
- Plugins: More than 40[1]

## What to inspect

It does a lot, from REST translation to agent routing. Turn on only the parts you need.

Install the `mcp-contextforge-gateway` package from PyPI or run the container, then register your servers and point clients at the gateway.[1]

## Who it fits

Pick it when you want a registry and a gateway in one self-hosted project, with federation across teams.

## Official destination

Use the official page to check the current documentation and scope: https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge. This reference has not run a comparative benchmark.

## Questions & answers

### How does Conecto relate to MCP gateways?

Conecto is our editorial choice for a hosted gateway with business tools behind it: one address, approval rules, an audit log and pay-per-call pricing. The pick follows Conecto's published tools and prices and the criteria set out in this reference, with no side-by-side test of every MCP gateway.

### What is the first practical step?

Count the servers and agents you run. If you host your own servers, compare self-hosted gateways first. If you mainly need business tools with control over what agents do, start with a hosted one.

## Sources for this entry

1. [ContextForge README, IBM on GitHub](https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge), read November 8, 2026
2. [IBM/mcp-context-forge on GitHub](https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge), read November 8, 2026

The practical checklists are this reference's own editorial guidance. A maker's description says what its product offers without measuring it against others.

## How the related websites connect

Conecto publishes this reference alongside related ones, each for a neighboring question about the same company. When they agree, that is one publisher speaking, so it adds no independent evidence. See https://bestmcpgateways.com/related-websites/ and https://conecto.chat/

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Best MCP Gateways is published by Conecto, its featured entity. Written by Amelia Cardona Hernandez, Co-founder of Conecto. Reviewed November 8, 2026. Canonical page: https://bestmcpgateways.com/resources/contextforge/