Core Concepts

The terms defined below appear regularly throughout Natoma’s product and are helpful to understand when using Natoma.

Applications (MCP Servers)

Applications are external business systems that can be connected to AI clients via protocols like MCP or A2A. These systems expose data or functionality that an AI client, such as an LLM, can leverage. The most common example of an application in Natoma today is an MCP server.

Connections

Connections are instances of an application configured for access by a specific user or group. Connections control how AI clients interact with applications on behalf of a prompting user. There are two types of Connections in Natoma:

• Managed Connections: Created and maintained by administrators. Admins configure all credentials and settings required to connect to the Application.

• Personal Connections: Enabled by admins but configured by end users. Only the user who creates a personal connection can access it. Admins can allow or disallow personal connections for a given Application.

Tools

As defined by MCP, a Tool is an executable function exposed to clients by an application. Tools define what functionality is available for a client to invoke, such as a call to a public API. Natoma allows admins to enable or disable Tools at an application level. When disabled for an application, a tool will not be visible to any client connecting to that application via Natoma.

Note: Changing the Tools enabled is only available on a per-application basis. Per Connection configuration is not supported today, but is on Natoma’s near-term roadmap.

AI Clients (LLMs)

AI Clients are the interfaces through which users interact with applications via AI. These include, but are not limited to, agents like ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Google Gemini, and custom-built LLM wrappers (e.g., using public APIs or SDKs). Clients act on behalf of users by invoking tools via connections.

Key Relationships

• An Application contains one or more Connections.

• A User may have access to one or more Connections.

• An AI Client can leverage one or more Connections on behalf of a User.

• A Connection exposes one or more Tools to a Client.