Trial Guide

Welcome to Barndoor free trial! Lets make AI workflows actually run safely with context-aware tool routing, action-level policies, and observability. In the free trial, you will:

Centralize AI + MCP Connections

Connect and manage AI apps- including VSCode, Claude, ChatGPT, and others—along with MCP servers as they interact with real systems.

Control AI Actions at Runtime

Define exactly which tools AI can use across create, read, update, or delete — enforced in real workflows.

Improve Execution with Context-Aware Tool Routing

Limit available MCP tools per action to reduce failures and improve debuggability.

See AI Activities End-to-End

Watch AI actions run across systems and review outcomes, decisions, and logs in one place.

Estimated Time: 15-20 minutes

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

Admin Access to your Barndoor Trial account. Click here if you have not signed up yet.
Admin credentials for the MCP server you want to connect
An AI client application or API key ready for testing

Labs

Step 1: Add and Connect an MCP Server

Summary

To realize full productivity potential, AI needs to take actions in real systems like Salesforce, Jira, GitHub, etc. Barndoor is the control plane for access control between AI and these systems. Once set up, Barndoor enforces fine grained access controls to the MCP servers of your connected systems.

What You’ll Learn

In this lab, you’ll discover how register and connect the Barndoor Gateway to an MCP server. Once connnected that server becomes available to your agents.

Let’s Get Started

To evaluate how Barndoor works, first add and connect an MCP server. Choose your path:

Add an MCP Server

Configure MCP server now in the Barndoor Dashboard

Register MCP Server Docs

Learn how to add servers with our comprehensive guide

You can connect multiple MCP servers. Start with one to understand the process, then add more as needed.

Step 2: Define Your First Access Policy

Summary

The Access Control Center is where you define policies for how AI agents and users can interact with connected systems.

Create policies that apply to specific agents, user roles and groups, or across your environment.
Choose which MCP tools are available or add sophisticated fine-grained access controls.
Deeper role, group, or user attribute based policies are available once you’ve integrated Barndoor with your identity provider system.

What You’ll Learn

In this lab, you’ll create your first access policy that controls what AI agents can (and cannot) do with your MCP servers. You’ll learn how to set up guardrails that keep AI secure while maintaining productivity.

⚠️ Important: You must first connect to an MCP server before you can set up policies. If you haven’t completed Step 1, go back and add a server first.

Let’s Get Started

Follow these steps to create your first access control policy:

Open Access Control Center

Click Access Control Center to begin configuring policies.

Select Agent and Server

Under the ‘AI Agents’ column, choose ‘Any Agent’
Under the ‘Connected Servers’ middle column, select Notion or your preferred server to configure agent permissions

Enable MCP Tools

Notice all your MCP tools are loaded under the ‘Actions’ tab.Turn on only the MCP tools you want Barndoor to allow through. This controls which tools are available for the agent to use.

Add Access Restrictions

Now that we’ve enabled certain tools, let’s add RBAC/ABAC access control policies.Click the ‘Restrictions’ tab to configure a policy.

Create A Policy

We have a bunch of pre-built policies in our MCP Server marketplace you can reuse.For now, click ‘Add Restriction’ and set up a basic user policy:

Name the restriction: Give it a descriptive name like “disallow_email”
Choose Action: Select ‘All Actions’ (synonymous with all MCP tools)
Set Match: Choose ‘Any’
Add Condition: Select a User restriction type that checks if the Email is not equal to yours

Optional: If you’ve set up a Notion MCP server, check out this policy that disallows page updates and comments to a specific Notion page. Please note: deeper role, group, or user attribute based policies are available once you’ve integrated Barndoor with your identity provider system.

Review JSON Configuration

Here’s how the JSON should look:

    {
   "name":"disallow_other_emails",
   "effect":"EFFECT_DENY",
   "actions":[
      "*"
   ],
   "roles":[
      "*"
   ],
   "condition":{
      "match":{
         "all":{
            "of":[
               {
                  "expr":"P.attr.email != \"[email protected]\""
               }
              ]
            }
          }
      }
    }

💡 What this does: Denies all actions (*) for users whose email doesn’t match yours—a basic example of user-level access control. Be sure to change the sample to match your email used during the Barndoor authorization process in step 3.

Extra Credit: Check out our Policies API and deeper details on how our policies are constructed.

Step 3: Connect an Account

Summary

When you connect an account, Barndoor uses OAuth 2.0 to perform a secure handshake on behalf of the user with the provider. After you log in, the provider (e.g., Salesforce) sends Barndoor an access token. Barndoor securely stores this JWT token and uses it whenever an MCP server tool call needs to act on your behalf — for example, retrieving Salesforce data or updating records. The JWT token will live for 60 minutes and can always be refreshed. Tokens can be revoked at any time through your provider’s account settings or through our API/SDK.

What You’ll Learn

In this lab, you’ll learn how to create and configure user accounts that will interact with your MCP servers through Barndoor’s access control policies.

Let’s Get Started

Choose your own destiny:

Follow the buttons below to access the Barndoor account management interface
Check out our extensive documentation on account configuration

Connect an account

Connect Barndoor on behalf of a user

OR:

Connecting Account Docs

Connect user accounts to Barndoor

Step 4: Connect an AI Client

Summary

Connect your preferred AI chat client (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code) to Barndoor so AI agents can interact with your MCP servers through governed access controls. For a comprehensive walkthrough, see here

What You’ll Learn

In this lab, you’ll configure an AI client to connect to Barndoor’s MCP gateway. Once connected, the AI will be able to use your MCP tools while respecting the policies you’ve configured.

Let’s Get Started

Choose your AI client below and follow the connection steps. Most clients can be connected in under 5 minutes.

Check out our comprehensive connection guide for detailed instructions

Claude
ChatGPT
Cursor IDE
VS Code

What you need:

Active Claude account (Pro or Team plan)
Your Barndoor MCP URL: https://{{your-org}}.mcp.barndoor.ai/mcp/{{servername}}. To locate this, simply view the details for any of your configured servers here

Quick Steps:

Open Claude → Settings → Connectors tab
Click “Add custom connector”
Enter your Barndoor MCP URL
Click Connect to authorize

📚 Detailed Claude guide

What you need:

ChatGPT Plus or Enterprise account
Your Barndoor MCP URL: https://{{your-org}}.mcp.barndoor.ai/mcp/{{servername}}

Quick Steps:

Go to ChatGPT → Settings → Apps → Create App
Provide app name, description, and your Barndoor MCP URL
Click Create and test the connection

📚 Detailed ChatGPT guide

What you need:

Cursor IDE installed
Your Barndoor MCP URL: https://{{your-org}}.mcp.barndoor.ai/mcp/{{servername}}

Quick Steps:

Cursor → Settings (or Cmd/Ctrl + ,)
Navigate to Extensions → MCP
Add your Barndoor server configuration
Restart Cursor

    {
      "mcpServers": {
        "barndoor": {
          "url": "https://{{your-org}}.mcp.barndoor.ai/mcp/{{servername}}"
        }
      }
    }

What you need:

VS Code with MCP support
Your Barndoor MCP URL: https://{{your-org}}.mcp.barndoor.ai/mcp/{{servername}}

Quick Steps:

Open Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P)
Select Preferences: Open Settings (JSON)
Add MCP server configuration
Reload VS Code window

    {
      "mcp.servers": [
        {
          "name": "Barndoor",
          "url": "https://{{your-org}}.mcp.barndoor.ai/mcp/{{servername}}"
        }
      ]
    }

Connection Issues? Verify your Barndoor URL is correct and that you’ve completed Steps 1-3 (MCP server connected, policies configured, account created).

Step 5: Review Audit History

Summary

Use the Audit Center to monitor overall behavior and spot unusual patterns, or dive into Audit History for detailed, event-by-event records. Track who accessed what, when it happened, and whether policies allowed or blocked the action.

What You’ll Learn

In this lab, you’ll learn how to access Barndoor’s audit logs to review AI interactions with your MCP servers. You’ll see:

Who & what: User, agent, or service activity
When & where: Time and affected system
Outcome: Policy decision result and full activity trace log

Let’s Get Started

Navigate to Audit History Center

Click here to begin

Open Filters Panel

Click the Filters button (or filter icon) in the Audit History interface.

Navigate to Server Filter

In the filters modal, click on Server to expand the server source options.

Select Your Server(s)

Choose one or more servers from the list (i.e., Notion)You can use Select all or None to quickly manage selections.

Apply Filters

Click the Apply button at the bottom to filter the audit logs.The interface will show “X filters selected” and display only events related to your chosen server(s).

Review Filtered Results

Now you’ll see only the audit events for your selected server(s), making it easy to:

View audit logs for specific servers, agents, etc.
Investigate issues with a particular MCP server by clicking into the traceId to see a full stacktrace
Monitor your inbound MCP calls across all users/agents/servers

Beyond Server, you can also filter by:

Agent type: Which AI agent made the request
Event Type: Type of action attempted
Resource: Specific data or endpoint accessed
Status: Allowed, denied, or blocked actions
User: Individual user or service account

Combine multiple filters to drill down into exactly the activity you need to review!

Pro tip: Use the search bar within filters to quickly find specific servers or resources. Clear all filters with the Clear button to start fresh.

Step 6: Invite Team Members

Summary

Collaborate with your team by inviting members to your Barndoor tenant. Team members can help manage MCP servers, configure policies, and monitor AI activity across your organization. Non-admin users will be able to login to the Barndoor dashboard and manage their connected accounts.

What You’ll Learn

In this lab, you’ll learn how to invite colleagues to your Barndoor workspace. Once invited, they’ll receive an email to join your tenant and can be assigned specific roles and permissions.

Let’s Get Started

Navigate to Users Page

Go to the Users section in your Barndoor dashboard. You’ll see:

Total number of active users in your tenant
Monitored actions over the last 30 days
A list of current team members

Click Invite Team Members

In the top right corner, click the Invite Team Members button.A modal will appear titled “Invite Team Members” with a form for adding invitees.

Fill Out Invitee Information

For each team member you want to invite, enter:

First name: Their first name
Last name: Their last name
Email: Their work email (e.g., [email protected])

💡 Tip: The form has placeholder text showing the expected format.

Add Multiple Team Members (Optional)

Need to invite more people? Click + Add another team member to add additional rows to the form.You can invite multiple colleagues in one batch—just keep adding rows as needed.

Remove Invitees (Optional)

Made a mistake? Click the trash icon (🗑️) next to any row to remove that invitee from the list.

Send Invitations

Once you’ve filled out all the information, click the Send Invites button at the bottom right of the modal.✅ Success! Your team members will receive email invitations to join your Barndoor tenant.

Monitor Invitation Status

After sending invites, you’ll return to the Users page where you can:

See pending invitations
Track which team members have accepted
Resend invitations if needed
Manage user roles once they’ve joined
Promote a team member to Admin

What happens next? Invited team members will receive an email with a link to create their account and join your Barndoor workspace.

Security best practice: Only promote trusted team members who need access to manage AI governance. AI Client consumers should be invited as users.

Next Steps

Congratulations! You’ve successfully completed the Barndoor Trial setup. Here’s what you can explore next:

Our SDKs

Whether you’re building AI-driven applications with OpenAI or performing direct API calls, the SDK simplifies authentication, tool discovery, and data operations with a robust TypeScript and Python interface.

API Reference

Barndoor provides a robust API that allows developers to securely access their dashboard environment’s data and programmatically update settings relevant to their Barndoor Org.

Building a custom Crew AI Agent

This guide walks you through how to run a CrewAI task using the Barndoor SDK to connect to an MCP server (like Notion), fetch connection parameters, and use the MCP tools within a CrewAI agent.

MCP Server Catalogue

Check out our MCP server catalogue including example policies, available tools and setup instructions

Troubleshooting

MCP Server Connection Failed

Common causes:

Incorrect server URL or credentials
Firewall blocking Barndoor’s IP addresses
OAuth token expired

Solution: Verify your credentials and check network connectivity. Contact your MCP server administrator if issues persist.

Policy Not Enforcing

Common causes:

Policy not assigned to the account
Policy priority conflicts with another policy
Cache delay (policies can take 30-60 seconds to propagate)

Solution: Verify policy assignment and wait a minute before testing. Check for conflicting policies.

Pending Connection

What this means: The authentication to this service wasn’t completed successfully.Common causes:

Authentication process was interrupted or not completed
Invalid or expired credentials were provided
Service connection permissions weren’t granted

Solution: Return to the server setup and complete the authentication process. Ensure you grant all necessary permissions when prompted.

Agent Authentication Failed

Common causes:

Invalid or expired API key
Incorrect API endpoint
Missing authentication headers

Solution: Navigate to your Barndoor account settings >> disconnect >> and reauthorize Barndoor on behalf of your user account.

Audit Logs Not Showing

Common causes:

Time zone mismatch in date filter
Requests not reaching Barndoor (direct server access)
Log retention period expired

Solution: Adjust date filters and ensure all requests go through Barndoor’s proxy.

Getting Started

Centralize AI + MCP Connections

Control AI Actions at Runtime

Improve Execution with Context-Aware Tool Routing

See AI Activities End-to-End

Prerequisites

Labs

Summary

What You’ll Learn

Let’s Get Started

Add an MCP Server

Register MCP Server Docs

Summary

What You’ll Learn

Let’s Get Started

Summary

What You’ll Learn

Let’s Get Started

Connect an account

Connecting Account Docs

Summary

What You’ll Learn

Let’s Get Started

Summary

What You’ll Learn

Let’s Get Started

Summary

What You’ll Learn

Let’s Get Started

Next Steps

Our SDKs

API Reference

Building a custom Crew AI Agent

MCP Server Catalogue

Troubleshooting

Need Help?

Documentation

Support

Getting Started

Centralize AI + MCP Connections

Control AI Actions at Runtime

Improve Execution with Context-Aware Tool Routing

See AI Activities End-to-End

​Prerequisites

​Labs

​Summary

​What You’ll Learn

​Let’s Get Started

Add an MCP Server

Register MCP Server Docs

​Summary

​What You’ll Learn

​Let’s Get Started

​Summary

​What You’ll Learn

​Let’s Get Started

Connect an account

Connecting Account Docs

​Summary

​What You’ll Learn

​Let’s Get Started

​Summary

​What You’ll Learn

​Let’s Get Started

​Additional Filter Options

​Summary

​What You’ll Learn

​Let’s Get Started

​Next Steps

Our SDKs

API Reference

Building a custom Crew AI Agent

MCP Server Catalogue

​Troubleshooting

​Need Help?

Documentation

Support

Prerequisites

Labs

Summary

What You’ll Learn

Let’s Get Started

Summary

What You’ll Learn

Let’s Get Started

Summary

What You’ll Learn

Let’s Get Started

Summary

What You’ll Learn

Let’s Get Started

Summary

What You’ll Learn

Let’s Get Started

Additional Filter Options

Summary

What You’ll Learn

Let’s Get Started

Next Steps

Troubleshooting

Need Help?