Glean

What Glean does

Glean exposes selected enterprise knowledge capabilities through the Model Context Protocol. The documented interface focuses on company documentation: agents can locate relevant pages across connected documentation sources and then retrieve the full content of a selected page. Search results include relevance-ranked matches, page URLs, snippets, and the sections that matched the query.

The server is remote rather than a locally installed process. Each organization receives its own Glean MCP server URL, allowing a configured MCP client to connect to that organization’s knowledge environment. Access is designed to follow the permissions already established in the organization’s Glean deployment.

How it works

An MCP-compatible host connects to the organization-specific endpoint using streamable HTTP. The client authenticates through OAuth 2.0, with support for SSO integration, before making knowledge requests. After authentication, an agent can search documentation with docs_search and use a result to request the complete page through docs_fetch.

A typical interaction starts with a broad documentation query. The agent reviews the returned titles, URLs, snippets, and matching sections, then calls docs_fetch for the page whose full contents are needed. This two-step flow helps the agent narrow the search before loading an entire document.

The service is intended for MCP hosts such as Claude Desktop and Cursor, and is described as compatible with MCP clients generally. The setup process is client-based: the user configures the remote endpoint and completes the authentication flow rather than running a repository checkout locally.

Setup and configuration

Start with the Glean setup guide for the organization’s MCP endpoint. Configuration requires the unique server URL assigned to that organization and an MCP client that supports remote MCP connections. The client setup also includes authentication, typically through OAuth 2.0 and the organization’s SSO flow.

No local runtime or package installation is needed for the remote server itself. Administrators and users should use their organization’s Glean documentation to enable the MCP server and determine the applicable access settings. Once configured, the client can expose the available MCP tools to an agent.

Tools and capabilities

• docs_search: Searches documentation for relevant pages and returns ranked matches with URLs, snippets, and matching sections.
• docs_fetch: Retrieves the complete content of a specified documentation page in markdown form.
• Permission-aware access: Requests respect the organization’s existing access controls.
• OAuth 2.0 authentication: Supports authenticated access with SSO integration.
• Streamable HTTP transport: Connects MCP clients to the remote service over the streamable HTTP protocol.

Limitations and notes

The endpoint is organization-specific, so a user needs access to the relevant Glean environment and its MCP configuration. Results and retrievable pages are governed by the permissions associated with the authenticated account. The documented tools cover documentation search and page retrieval; client configuration and authentication are handled through the organization’s Glean setup process.