Use MCP servers in Amp with Toolport
Toolport is a free, open source local MCP gateway. Add your servers to Toolport once, flip the Amp toggle, and Amp gets all of them through a single gateway entry, with lazy discovery loading a handful of meta-tools instead of every server's full tool list.
Setup
- Download Toolport for Windows, macOS or Linux, and add your MCP servers to it (or import the ones your other AI agents already have; secrets go to your OS keychain).
- Open the Clients tab and toggle Amp on. Toolport writes its gateway entry into Amp's config, next to anything already there.
- Restart or reload Amp. Your full server set is available through Toolport, and any server you add later shows up without touching Amp again.
Where Amp keeps its MCP config
- All platforms
~/.config/amp/settings.json
JSON with a dotted amp.mcpServers key rather than a nested object.
Good to know
- Set AMP_SETTINGS_FILE and Toolport writes that file instead of the default location.
Why a gateway instead of Amp's own server list?
- One setup, every agent. The same servers work in Amp and every other AI agent on your machine; add a server once and they all get it.
- Up to 91% fewer tool tokens. Instead of every server dumping its tool list into context, the agent loads a handful of meta-tools and searches on demand (measured).
- Secrets in the OS keychain. API keys are injected at runtime and never sit in Amp's config file.
- Watched by default. Rug-pull and tool-poisoning detection on every tool, plus per-tool governance and a destructive-tool kill switch. How the security works.