Resources and Prompts

Overview

MCP servers can offer more than tools. Prompts are reusable message templates that a user picks in their MCP client, and resources are documents or data the client can read, such as files or records. Bifrost discovers both from every connected MCP server and serves them through its MCP gateway, next to tools. An MCP client connected to Bifrost sees the prompts and resources of all the servers it can reach, without connecting to each one. Key benefits:

One connection - Clients get prompts and resources from every server through Bifrost.
Same access rules as tools - A caller reaches a server’s prompts and resources when it can reach that server.
Per-server control - Choose which prompts and resources each server exposes.
Logged and governed - Reads appear in MCP logs and go through governance, like tool calls.

Prompts and resources are for MCP clients. They are not offered to models in chat completions, the Responses API, or Agent Mode, which use tools only.

How they appear to clients

	What a client sees	Example
Prompts	The server’s name, then the prompt’s own name, like tools	`docs-review` for the `review` prompt on the `docs` server
Resources	The URI the server lists, unchanged	`file:///handbook.md`
Resource templates	The URI template the server lists, unchanged	`notes://{id}`

Reads go back to the server that listed the item, and arguments for prompts and templates can be auto-completed when the server supports it. If two servers list the same resource URI, only one of them serves it, and you cannot choose which. Keep URIs distinct across servers, or hide the duplicate with an allow-list.

Who can reach them

A caller can use a server’s prompts and resources when it can reach that server, by the same rules as tools:

A virtual key reaches the servers assigned to it.
A Virtual MCP endpoint reaches the servers it draws its tools from.
Request filters narrow which servers a request reaches.

Access is per server. Virtual keys and Virtual MCPs do not have their own prompt or resource lists, so a caller that reaches a server sees everything that server exposes. Restricting a caller to some of a server’s tools does not restrict its prompts or resources. A server that offers only prompts or resources, with no tools, is served in the same way.

Choosing what a server exposes

Each server exposes all of its prompts and resources by default. Use its allow-lists to expose fewer, or none.

Web UI
config.json

Open MCP Servers and select the server.
Open the Prompts & Resources tab, which lists what the server offers.
Choose which prompts and resources to expose.
Save the server.

Set prompts_to_expose and resources_to_expose on a client_configs[] entry:

{
  "mcp": {
    "client_configs": [
      {
        "name": "docs",
        "connection_type": "http",
        "connection_string": "https://docs.example.com/mcp",
        "prompts_to_expose": ["review"],
        "resources_to_expose": ["file:///handbook.md", "notes://{id}"]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Field	Type	Required	Description
`prompts_to_expose`	string[]	No	Prompts served through the gateway, by the server’s own name (`review`, not `docs-review`).
`resources_to_expose`	string[]	No	Resource URIs and URI templates served through the gateway.

For both fields, ["*"] exposes everything and [] exposes nothing. Omitted, a new server exposes everything and an existing server keeps its stored list.

Keeping lists up to date

Bifrost refreshes prompts and resources along with tools, on each server’s tool sync interval. A server with a persistent connection can also announce a change, and Bifrost picks it up straight away. See Dynamic Tool Discovery. To pick up a change immediately on any server, use Refresh tools on the server, which re-reads its prompts and resources too.

Resource subscriptions are not supported through the gateway. A client that wants the latest content of a resource reads it again.

Logs and governance

Each prompt a client fetches and each resource it reads is recorded in MCP Logs, with the prompt name or resource URI in place of a tool name. Governance checks and accounts for reads as it does for tool calls, without the per-tool check. Enterprise guardrails apply to tool calls only, not to prompts or resource reads.

Next Steps

Gateway Authentication

Connect MCP clients to Bifrost

Virtual MCPs

Bundle servers behind one endpoint

Tool Filtering

Control which tools and servers callers reach

Connections

How connection modes affect updates

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Migrate from other Gateway

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MCP Gateway

Agent Gateway

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Open Source Features

Resources and Prompts

Overview

How they appear to clients

Who can reach them

Choosing what a server exposes

Keeping lists up to date

Logs and governance

Next Steps

Gateway Authentication

Virtual MCPs

Tool Filtering

Connections

​Overview

​How they appear to clients

​Who can reach them

​Choosing what a server exposes

​Keeping lists up to date

​Logs and governance

​Next Steps

Gateway Authentication

Virtual MCPs

Tool Filtering

Connections

Overview

How they appear to clients

Who can reach them

Choosing what a server exposes

Keeping lists up to date

Logs and governance

Next Steps