Use the App Lifecycle Manager remote MCP server

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This document shows you how to use the App Lifecycle Manager remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) server to connect with AI applications including Gemini CLI, ChatGPT, Claude, and custom applications you are developing. The App Lifecycle Manager remote MCP server lets you manage App Lifecycle Manager resources like SaaSes, Tenants, and Units from your AI application..

The App Lifecycle Manager remote MCP server is enabled when you enable the App Lifecycle Manager API.

Model Context Protocol (MCP) standardizes how large language models (LLMs) and AI applications or agents connect to external data sources. MCP servers let you use their tools, resources, and prompts to take actions and get updated data from their backend service.

What's the difference between local and remote MCP servers?

Local MCP servers

Typically run on your local machine and use the standard input and output streams (stdio) for communication between services on the same device.

Remote MCP servers

Run on the service's infrastructure and offer an HTTP endpoint to AI applications for communication between the AI MCP client and the MCP server. For more information about MCP architecture, see MCP architecture.

For information on the App Lifecycle Manager local MCP server, see Use the App Lifecycle Manager local MCP server.

Google and Google Cloud remote MCP servers

Google and Google Cloud remote MCP servers have the following features and benefits:

• Simplified, centralized discovery
• Managed global or regional HTTP endpoints
• Fine-grained authorization
• Optional prompt and response security with Model Armor protection
• Centralized audit logging

For information about other MCP servers and information about security and governance controls available for Google Cloud MCP servers, see Google Cloud MCP servers overview.

Before you begin

Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

Roles required to select or create a project

• Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
• Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator role (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.

Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

Go to project selector

Enable the App Lifecycle Manager API.

Roles required to enable APIs

To enable APIs, you need the Service Usage Admin IAM role (roles/serviceusage.serviceUsageAdmin), which contains the serviceusage.services.enable permission. Learn how to grant roles.

Enable the API

Install the Google Cloud CLI.

Note: If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by running gcloud components update.

If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

gcloud init

In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

Roles required to select or create a project

• Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
• Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator role (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.

Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

Go to project selector

Enable the App Lifecycle Manager API.

Roles required to enable APIs

To enable APIs, you need the Service Usage Admin IAM role (roles/serviceusage.serviceUsageAdmin), which contains the serviceusage.services.enable permission. Learn how to grant roles.

Enable the API

Install the Google Cloud CLI.

Note: If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by running gcloud components update.

If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

gcloud init

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to use the App Lifecycle Manager MCP server, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles on the project where you want to use the App Lifecycle Manager MCP server:

• Make MCP tool calls: MCP Tool User (roles/mcp.toolUser)

For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

These predefined roles contain the permissions required to use the App Lifecycle Manager MCP server. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

Required permissions

The following permissions are required to use the App Lifecycle Manager MCP server:

• Make MCP tool calls: mcp.tools.call

You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles.

Authentication and authorization

The App Lifecycle Manager remote MCP server uses the OAuth 2.0 protocol with Identity and Access Management (IAM) for authentication and authorization. All Google Cloud identities are supported for authentication to MCP servers.

The App Lifecycle Manager remote MCP server doesn't accept API keys.

We recommend that you create a separate identity for agents that are using MCP tools so that access to resources can be controlled and monitored. For more information about authentication, see Authenticate to MCP servers.

App Lifecycle Manager MCP OAuth scopes

OAuth 2.0 uses scopes and credentials to determine if an authenticated principal is authorized to take a specific action on a resource. For more information about OAuth 2.0 scopes at Google, read Using OAuth 2.0 to access Google APIs.

App Lifecycle Manager has the following MCP tool OAuth scopes:

Scope URI for gcloud CLI	Description
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/saasservicemgmt.read-only	Only allows access to read data.
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/saasservicemgmt.read-write	Allows access to read and modify data.

Configure an MCP client to use the App Lifecycle Manager MCP server

AI applications and agents, such as Claude or Gemini CLI, can instantiate an MCP client that connects to a single MCP server. An AI application can have multiple clients that connect to different MCP servers. To connect to a remote MCP server, the MCP client must know the remote MCP server's URL.

In your AI application, look for a way to connect to a remote MCP server. You are prompted to enter details about the server, such as its name and URL.

For the App Lifecycle Manager MCP server, enter the following as required:

• Server name: App Lifecycle Manager MCP server
• Server URL or Endpoint: https://saasservicemgmt.googleapis.com/mcp
• Transport: HTTP
• Authentication details: Depending on how you want to authenticate, you can enter your Google Cloud credentials, your OAuth Client ID and secret, or an agent identity and credentials. For more information about authentication, see Authenticate to MCP servers.
• OAuth scope: the OAuth 2.0 scope that you want to use when connecting to the App Lifecycle Manager MCP server.

For host-specific guidance about setting up and connecting to MCP server, see the following:

• Claude.ai
• Gemini CLI

For more general guidance, see the following resources:

• Connect to remote MCP servers.
• Configure MCP in an AI application.

Available tools

To view details of available MCP tools and their descriptions for the App Lifecycle Manager MCP server, see the App Lifecycle Manager MCP reference.

List tools

Use the MCP inspector to list tools, or send a tools/list HTTP request directly to the App Lifecycle Manager remote MCP server. The tools/list method doesn't require authentication.

POST /mcp HTTP/1.1
Host: saasservicemgmt.googleapis.com
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "tools/list",
}

What's next

• Read the App Lifecycle Manager MCP reference documentation.
• Learn more about Google Cloud MCP servers.