docs: plain-language explainer of the AH / Tool Hub / gateways stack

Plain-terms companion to integration-architecture.md: Automation Hub as the
internal action warehouse, Tool Hub as the smart front desk (progressive
disclosure + per-user permission filtering + audit) running as a central
service, and where the MCP Gateway (Arcade, per-user OAuth for outside tools)
and AI Gateway (config-only model toll booth) plug into existing seams.
Source-verified against servicetitan/tool-hub + automation-hub @ master.
This commit is contained in:
Tejus Rachakonda
2026-06-22 12:19:18 -05:00
parent 0dfeeb4194
commit 9acd84b910
3 changed files with 143 additions and 16 deletions
@@ -25,20 +25,24 @@
## Benchmark tests
| # | Test (verbatim) | Result | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grant User A access to GitHub tools and User B access to Atlassian tools. Verify User A cannot invoke Atlassian tools even if they know the tool name. | | |
| 1 | Grant User A access to GitHub tools and User B access to Atlassian tools. Verify User A cannot invoke Atlassian tools even if they know the tool name. | PARTIAL (curr-state) — on one gateway the tool list is gateway-wide, identical for A and B (not per-user); an ungranted/unknown tool is cleanly rejected at the Engine. True per-user grant (A=GitHub, B=Atlassian) needs 2 gateways or Contextual Access (dashboard). | probes.md §B1: A==B 10 tools; `Github_CreateIssue``McpError: tool not enabled for this gateway` |
| 2 | Write a Contextual Access rule that blocks inputs containing a specific pattern (e.g., a mock SSN). Send a matching input — verify it is blocked before execution and logged. | | |
| 3 | Write a Contextual Access rule that redacts a field from tool outputs. Verify the field is absent from the agent's response. | | |
| 4 | Update User A's tool grants (add a new tool). Verify the change takes effect without restarting anything. | | |
| 5 | Confirm policy enforcement point: attempt to bypass Contextual Access by calling the server directly (bypassing the Engine). Confirm this is architecturally prevented or explicitly documented as a known boundary. | | |
| 5 | Confirm policy enforcement point: attempt to bypass Contextual Access by calling the server directly (bypassing the Engine). Confirm this is architecturally prevented or explicitly documented as a known boundary. | DONE — enforcement is at the Engine. All arcade Services are ClusterIP; the worker (where tools run) is not public → public bypass network-prevented. In-cluster direct-to-worker is reachable but secret-gated (operational). Self-hosted custom servers exposed via public tunnel are a documented bypass boundary. | probes.md §B5: svc types; worker `/worker/health`=200, `/mcp`=406 (needs secret) |
## Suggested pass/fail gates
| Gate | Pass condition (verbatim) | Result | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tool isolation | Cross-user tool calls are rejected at the Engine regardless of client behavior | | |
| Tool isolation | Cross-user tool calls are rejected at the Engine regardless of client behavior | PARTIAL — ungranted/unknown tools are rejected at the Engine (not the client); but on one gateway the allow-list is gateway-wide, so it is not yet per-*user* isolation. | probes.md §B1/§B5 |
| Input policy | Blocked inputs are rejected before execution, not after | | |
| Output policy | Redacted fields are absent from the agent's response | | |
| Audit | Every policy decision (allow/block/redact) produces a retrievable log entry | | |
| Dynamic grants | Tool grant updates take effect without service restart | | |
## Findings
-
- **Enforcement point = the Engine (criterion 5).** Ungranted/unknown tool calls are rejected at the Engine with a clean structured error (`tool not enabled for this gateway`) — no leak, no execution, no shared-credential fallback.
- **Tool curation is per-gateway, not per-user (criteria 1, 2).** On a single Arcade-Headers gateway the tool list is identical for every `Arcade-User-ID` (A==B). Per-user differentiation requires Contextual Access (an access hook) or separate gateways / a User Source — to be tested once dashboard access lands.
- **Bypass surface (criterion 5 boundary).** Public attack surface is network-isolated for in-cluster tools (worker is ClusterIP). Two documented boundaries: (a) in-cluster direct-to-worker is only secret+network gated (operational, not architectural); (b) self-hosted custom servers exposed via public Cloudflare tunnel can be called directly, bypassing Engine policy — mitigate in prod via ClusterIP registration / tunnel access control.
- **V4 seam note.** With no ToolHub deployed, all of the above is Arcade-native enforcement. For a ToolHub front, the authority decision + audit (`ToolHubDecisionRecord`) would move to the ToolHub MCP Endpoint, and Arcade should be reachable only via ToolHub (closes boundary (a)/(b)).
- _Pending (dashboard / Contextual Access): per-user grants (1), Contextual Access input block (3) + output redaction (4), dynamic per-user grant w/o restart (7), audit of decisions (6), Okta-group scopes (8)._