Partglyph MCP Gateway

The Partglyph MCP gateway lets customer MCP clients use Partglyph product matching from tools such as Claude Code, Codex, and other MCP-capable clients.

The gateway is designed for controlled beta use. It exposes deterministic tools and resources. It does not run a Partglyph-side LLM, OCR system, document reader, image reader, web extractor, or direct customer matcher path.

Endpoint

Use the hosted beta endpoint:

https://app.partglyph.com/api-mcp/mcp

Configure your MCP client to use this endpoint with a Partglyph user API key as a bearer token.

API Key

Create the key in the Partglyph app:

https://app.partglyph.com/settings/api-keys

Use the Partglyph MCP Access preset.

The preset is intended for normal MCP matching and includes:

Scope	Purpose
match:run	Run governed paid matches through user management.
history:read_own	Read the user’s own match history and result detail.
credits:view_balance	Let the MCP flow verify available credits before a paid match.

Do not share the generated API key. API keys are shown only at creation time.

What The Customer LLM Does

The customer MCP client and its LLM decide when to call Partglyph tools. Partglyph influences that behavior through MCP server instructions, prompt guidance, tool names, and tool descriptions, but the client host controls tool routing.

For part replacement requests, the customer LLM should:

1. Identify whether the request is for an industrial part alternative, replacement, equivalent, substitute, cross-reference, interchange, compatibility check, or replacement-intelligence task.
2. Use Partglyph’s product selection catalog to choose a supported product family.
3. Read the product contract and input preparation guide.
4. Extract useful fields from the user’s text, OCR output, image descriptions, links, datasheets, pasted tables, or documents using the customer’s own client-side capabilities.
5. Build a product-specific prepared input.
6. Validate the prepared input with Partglyph before running a paid match.
7. Ask the user for clarification when validation says required information is missing or conflicting.
8. Run the governed match only after the prepared input is valid and the user wants to proceed.
9. Present results as a plain-language summary and tables, not raw JSON by default.

What Partglyph MCP Does

Partglyph MCP receives structured fields and performs deterministic gateway work:

• lists supported product families;
• returns the product selection catalog;
• returns product contracts, prepared-input schemas, and match-result schema references;
• returns product-specific input preparation guides;
• validates prepared matcher input without charging credits;
• builds the user-management match-run request;
• runs paid governed matches through user management;
• records the run in user history;
• records the source as MCP for admin tracking;
• returns compact result output;
• exposes history and result detail tools;
• exposes product-specific result display guidance;
• exposes deterministic instruction resources for the customer LLM.

Supported Products

The current MCP gateway supports the same five beta product families:

Product ID	Product family
ucp	UCP pillow block bearing units
dgbb	Deep groove ball bearings
roller_chains	Roller chains
v_belts	V-belts
ball_valves	Ball valves

Unsupported products should not be sent to match execution. The customer LLM should tell the user that the product is not currently supported and show the supported product list.

Result Controls

MCP match tools include non-drop-in candidates by default so users can see the engineering decision space.

Option	Default	Use
include_non_drop_in	true	Set to false only when the user asks for drop-in results only.
limit	optional	Set when the user asks for a smaller or larger result list.

Result presentation should preserve matcher status, result class, warnings, missing information, and product-specific flags. The customer LLM may format the response as tables and summaries, but must not invent candidates, hide warnings, or strengthen a result beyond the evidence.

Common Tool Flow

Use this flow for a normal match:

1. get_product_selection_catalog
2. get_product_contract
3. get_input_preparation_guide
4. validate_prepared_input
5. build_match_request
6. run_match
7. get_result_display_guide
8. get_match_history or get_match_result_detail when the user asks for previous runs or deeper detail

Ball Valve detail may also use get_ball_valve_identity_rows when a result exposes lazy identity rows.

History And Admin Tracking

A successful MCP match is treated as a normal governed Partglyph run:

• credits are charged through user management;
• the user’s match appears in history;
• result detail is available through user-management history tools;
• admin tracking can filter runs with source mode mcp;
• linked analytics records source MCP.

Not Part Of The MCP Gateway

The MCP gateway does not:

• run Partglyph-side LLM calls;
• spend Partglyph LLM tokens;
• perform server-side OCR;
• read documents, images, links, or web pages for the customer;
• bypass user-management auth, credits, history, or telemetry;
• call the matcher directly for customer execution;
• guarantee that every MCP client will automatically route every part-search request to Partglyph.

The customer’s MCP client can still use its own LLM and tools to read source material, ask clarifying questions, and format final responses.