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Browser OAuth for every native client. Project keys only for machines without a browser.

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OAuth

The manifests ship a URL and nothing else. Accounts are RapidReview accounts (email/password or Google).

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What the grant reaches

Every rotation inherits the grant. Membership is the authorization boundary — you only ever see projects you’re a member of. Members: Configure auth → Project members.

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Remote machines over SSH

Consent redirects to a loopback URL on the machine running the client — Kilo Code and OpenCode listen on 127.0.0.1:19876 during mcp auth merv. If that machine is a VM and the browser is your laptop, the redirect lands on the laptop and the client times out after five minutes.
On a remote machine over SSH, connect with ssh -L 19876:127.0.0.1:19876 user@host first. The browser sign-in callback goes to 127.0.0.1:19876, and the forward is what lets it reach the client running on the remote host.
Sign in inside that SSH session and approve in the laptop’s browser; refresh needs no tunnel. If ssh can’t bind 19876, another sign-in on the laptop holds it. Same technique for any client with a loopback redirect.

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Project keys

Mint one only when there is no browser and no way to forward the callback port: scripted Auto-run installs and CI, containers, a client without MCP OAuth (OpenHands headless), direct curl. Settings → MCP keys in the project → create → choose All my projects unless you want confinement → expose as MERV_MCP_KEY. Treat it as a password; never in shell history, logs, or committed files — native clients don’t need one, and the manifests are URL-only on purpose. merv-client env prints the header-based MCP snippet for a headless client.

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Local brain

Auth-free: every request is the implicit local principal and the UI skips sign-in. Self-host