What are bindings?

[lucis]

We've been using this term for a couple of weeks and discovering its power.

I think we now have a clearer understanding to explain it better.

One important distinction to realize it that we're using "binding" to refer to:

• Cloudflare Workers's Bindings, which allows workers to access CF services like a database
• deco Bindings, the object of this discussion

They do indeed share some ideas.

I'll write what I've come to understand based on conversations with @mcandeia.

--

deco is an MCP Gateway where people install MCPs for their services (ex: Google Sheets, Supabase, OpenAI) and manage access to their tools.

When implementing this gateway, we noticed one thing:

• Different MCPs need similar capabilities to provide a better UX when using them

Examples: OAuth authentication, connection with external chats (WhatsApp, Slack), Workflows, Payments.

So, how would we implement an oAuth flow in our frontend to provide a better UX? We can't do that for every MCP that might be implemented in different ways. We need MCPs to comply with our oAuth guidelines

So, in this case, we create an oAuth Binding that will

• Require the MCP implement some tools with a specific type signature
• Provide UI and tooling to better accomplish a task (in this case, authenticating the MCP with oAuth)

Similar to how /robots.txt, /sitemap.xml works for websites, Bindings allow MCP servers to "opt in" into special features that the "common good" will implement. In this case, deco platform is the one proposing and implementing it.

--

I didn't spend a lot of time editing this. I'm still a bit confused about the concept. But I'd love to hear your opinions, specially how could this be clearer.