MCP Gateway & Agent Tool Access RFI & RFP Template
Letting an agent call real tools against real data is an access-control decision before it is an AI decision. Ask the questions that make a vendor prove the control plane actually controls anything.
Purchase a single RFI or RFP — no subscription or bundle required. A free account at checkout is all it takes; your purchase opens directly in the in-app builder.
What it de-risks
- ▸Pin down whose identity a tool call carries — the agent, the human, or a shared service account that makes least privilege impossible.
- ▸Test whether per-agent tool allowlists are enforced at the gateway or merely displayed in a console.
- ▸Establish what the audit record actually contains, before an incident is the reason you find out.
- ▸Expose what happens when the gateway is down: a control plane that fails open is advisory, not binding.
- ▸Make prompt injection through tool results and tool descriptions an explicit line of questioning, not an assumption.
What it covers
27 sections, plus an MCP Gateways & Agent Tool Access feature layer — covering the controls that decide an enterprise-AI purchase.
Universal enterprise sections
AI-specific sections
A few of the questions
A small sample. The full, scored question set is delivered in your portal after purchase.
State the full legal name, jurisdiction of incorporation, registered office address, and company registration number of the entity that will contract with {{issuer.org_name}}.
Why it matters · The contracting entity is the legal counterparty that bears liability and obligations. Buyers must verify the entity exists, is in good standing, and is the same entity making sales representations. Operating-entity / contracting-entity mismatches are a documented failure mode at this stage of diligence.
List any trade names, brand names, or 'doing business as' (DBA) designations your company uses in market that differ from the legal entity name.
Why it matters · Buyers often encounter vendors under marketing names that do not match the legal contracting entity. Surfacing these aliases prevents confusion during contracting and ensures references and litigation searches cover all relevant names.
Identify the operating entity (the entity that employs the product engineering and support staff) and confirm whether it is the same as the proposed contracting entity. If different, explain the relationship.
Why it matters · When the operating entity differs from the contracting entity, buyers can be left contracting with a thinly capitalized shell while the actual product is delivered by a related party. This pattern is one of the known failure modes this module exists to surface.
List all subsidiaries, affiliated entities, and group companies of the proposed contracting entity, indicating which will play a role in service delivery to {{issuer.org_name}}.
Why it matters · Group structure determines which legal entities touch buyer data, perform processing, and have rights and obligations under the contract. Buyers need this to scope data-protection agreements, sub-processor reviews, and export-control assessments.
FAQ
Who is this template for?
Teams selecting an MCP gateway, registry, or managed connector layer — the control plane agents call through. It covers identity binding, per-agent authorization, audit, injection defense, rate and loop controls, tenancy isolation, incident scope, and exit. It does not evaluate the agent framework itself or the systems the tools reach.
Is this specific to the Model Context Protocol?
The questions are written around MCP because that is the protocol enterprises are standardizing on for agent tool access, and one question asks directly about revision support and proprietary extensions. Most of the control questions apply to any governed agent tool-access layer, whatever the wire protocol.
Why does this need its own template?
Because the failure modes are specific. Generic API-security questionnaires do not ask what happens when content returned by a tool re-enters the model context, or whether a server can change its tool descriptions after you approved it. Those are the questions that separate a governed deployment from a hopeful one.
How is it delivered?
Buy it once from this page with a free account. You get the universal enterprise-AI procurement modules plus the MCP-specific feature layer, assembled in the builder and exported as a Word questionnaire for vendors and an Excel scoring matrix for you — each question with what a strong answer looks like and the red flags to watch for.
Build a defensible MCP Gateway & Agent Tool Access selection
Buy once, then assemble and export it against your own project and shortlist — pick the modules that fit, prefill your front matter, and download XLSX/CSV/JSON.
One-time purchase · Word questionnaire + Excel scoring matrix (also CSV/JSON) · Itemized receipt and perpetual organization license · Free account required at checkout