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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ultra.security/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Ultra is built as a layered proxy with clear separation between transport, processing, routing, and storage. It runs locally on each user’s machine as a single binary — MCP clients launch it as a subprocess, and all processing happens on-device. There are no cloud components in the data path.

System Architecture

Layers

Transport Layer

Handles MCP protocol communication. Ultra supports all MCP transport types:
  • stdio — Standard I/O for local clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex)
  • HTTP/SSE — Server-sent events over HTTP
  • Streamable HTTP — Modern HTTP streaming
The client-facing side typically uses stdio (since MCP clients launch Ultra as a subprocess), while upstream connections use whatever transport the server requires.

Pipeline

The interceptor chain processes every request and response, handling tracing, logging, auditing, and metrics.

Aggregator

The aggregator manages connections to upstream MCP servers and presents them as a single unified interface to the client.

Storage

Observability data is stored locally on the gateway by default, with optional sync to Ultra Hub for cloud deployments.