MCP Authentication

Dash implements the MCP server but not authentication. Before an AI client can connect to a private app, it must sign in. There are several ways to handle this depending on where your app is hosted.

Plotly Cloud

The simplest option is to Publish your app to Plotly Cloud. The platform handles OAuth using the same access controls as the rest of your app, meaning that you have no authentication code to write and no session tokens to manage. Only users who already have access to the app can connect an agent to it, and they authenticate through their Plotly Cloud account when their client connects.

The MCP Setup tab in Plotly Cloud

See Dash MCP on Plotly Cloud for full setup instructions.

Dash Enterprise

Authenticated MCP connections are not yet supported on Dash Enterprise. Support is planned for a future release.

Self-Hosted Apps

If you’re hosting on your own infrastructure, implement the OAuth 2.0 authorization flow described in the MCP specification. This works with any MCP client that supports standard OAuth, including Claude, Claude Code, and more.