Google Cloud remote MCP servers let you use
Identity and Access Management (IAM) to enforce fine-grained authorization across your
resource hierarchy. You can configure access at the project or individual
resource level to control tool use based on resource tags and read-only or
read-write permissions.

[Non-Google Cloud MCP servers](https://docs.cloud.google.com/mcp/supported-products#google-mcp-servers) don't require the MCP Tool
User (`roles/mcp.toolUser`) role. You also can't use IAM
policies or permissions to control access to non-Google Cloud MCP servers.

For detailed information about IAM and its features, see
[IAM overview](https://docs.cloud.google.com/iam/docs/overview).

## Grant access

Grant a principal the MCP Tool User role on a project.

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the **IAM** page.

   [Go to IAM](https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/iam?supportedpurview=project)
2. Select your project.

3. Click **Grant access**.

4. Enter an identifier for the principal. For example,
   `my-app@example.com`.

5. From the **Select a role** drop-down menu, search for **MCP Tool User** , and
   then click **MCP Tool User**.

6. Click **Save**.

7. Verify that the principal and the corresponding role are listed in the
   IAM page.

You have successfully granted an IAM role to a principal.

To learn more about other management access tasks, such as revoking
IAM roles or granting multiple IAM roles, see
[Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations](https://docs.cloud.google.com/iam/docs/granting-changing-revoking-access#grant-single-role)
in the IAM documentation.

## Identity and Access Management conditions

Google Cloud remote MCP servers support
[IAM Conditions](https://docs.cloud.google.com/iam/docs/conditions-overview). Identity and Access Management conditions let you
define and enforce conditional, attribute-based access control. This means you
can grant access to principals only if specified conditions are met, such as the
time of the request, the resource name, the resource type, or the tags attached
to the resource.

You can use IAM Conditions in the following places:

- Allow policy role bindings, including role bindings managed by Privileged Access Manager entitlements
- Deny policy rules
- Policy bindings for principal access boundary policies

For more information, see the
[Attribute reference for Identity and Access Management Conditions](https://docs.cloud.google.com/iam/docs/conditions-attribute-reference).

## Google Cloud MCP servers roles and permissions

The following sections describe the IAM roles required for
interacting with and controlling the use of Google Cloud MCP servers.

### Roles

To use Google Cloud MCP tools, the tool caller must be granted the MCP Tool User
(`roles/mcp.toolUser`) role on the Google Cloud project, as well as the required
roles for any Google Cloud products or services that you access.
[Non-Google Cloud MCP servers](https://docs.cloud.google.com/mcp/supported-products#google-mcp-servers) don't require the MCP Tool
User role.

### Permissions

The following permissions are required to access Google Cloud services through
MCP:

- `mcp.tools.call`

## What's next

- [Prevent read-write MCP tool use](https://docs.cloud.google.com/mcp/prevent-read-write-tool-use)