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Add passthroughHeaders to VirtualMCPServer for header forwarding#5466

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juancarlosm wants to merge 7 commits into
stacklok:mainfrom
ackstorm:feat/vmcp-passthrough-headers
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Add passthroughHeaders to VirtualMCPServer for header forwarding#5466
juancarlosm wants to merge 7 commits into
stacklok:mainfrom
ackstorm:feat/vmcp-passthrough-headers

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@juancarlosm

@juancarlosm juancarlosm commented Jun 8, 2026

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Summary

When a client calls vMCP with a header its backend needs — e.g. x-mcp-api-key that the backend resolves to a specific user — vMCP silently drops it. vMCP opens a fresh request to each backend and sends only its own headers, so the caller's header never arrives. Backends that authenticate per-user from a header therefore can't be used through vMCP today — only by hitting the backend directly.

This adds spec.passthroughHeaders: an allowlist of incoming header names that vMCP forwards, unchanged, to every backend it calls.

spec:
  passthroughHeaders:
    - x-mcp-api-key

A listed header is read from the client request and attached to that session's backend requests. Headers not listed are ignored. Restricted names (Host, Authorization, X-Forwarded-*, hop-by-hop) are rejected.

Approach discussed and agreed with @jerm-dro on #3958 (assigned to me there).

Closes #3958

Type of change

  • New feature

Test plan

  • Unit tests across all layers (identity redaction, header merge, validation, capture middleware, converter precedence)
  • Integration test (test/integration/vmcp/passthrough_headers_test.go): real client → capture → backend; asserts allowlisted header forwarded, non-allowlisted dropped
  • golangci-lint clean; CRD/deepcopy/docs regenerated (no drift)

Does this introduce a user-facing change?

Yes:

spec:
  passthroughHeaders: [x-litellm-api-key]

Special notes for reviewers

  • Implementation: the header is captured onto the per-request *auth.Identity at the incoming-auth boundary (cloned, not mutated) and injected by the per-session backend client — it flows as an explicit parameter, not a context value, so no vmcp-anti-patterns §1/§7 coupling and the round-tripper is unchanged. This is the no-context-plumbing path discussed in vMCP: add header_passthrough outgoing auth strategy to forward dynamic incoming headers to backends #3958 once the session refactor landed; the vmcp-review audit was clean.
  • Limitation: on session restore (HA), only the (iss, sub) tuple is persisted — forwarded headers aren't, same as bearer tokens. Low impact with sessionAffinity: ClientIP.

Large PR Justification

Most of the diff is required tests (~700 lines: unit + an in-process e2e) and generated code that can't be split (CRD manifests in two API versions × two chart copies, deepcopy, API docs). Hand-written source is ~240 lines. Already trimmed from ~1157 to ~1030 added lines by de-duplicating tests (coverage unchanged); the remainder is cohesive single-feature code that wouldn't be safe to split.

@github-actions github-actions Bot added the size/XL Extra large PR: 1000+ lines changed label Jun 8, 2026

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Large PR Detected

This PR exceeds 1000 lines of changes and requires justification before it can be reviewed.

How to unblock this PR:

Add a section to your PR description with the following format:

## Large PR Justification

[Explain why this PR must be large, such as:]
- Generated code that cannot be split
- Large refactoring that must be atomic
- Multiple related changes that would break if separated
- Migration or data transformation

Alternative:

Consider splitting this PR into smaller, focused changes (< 1000 lines each) for easier review and reduced risk.

See our Contributing Guidelines for more details.


This review will be automatically dismissed once you add the justification section.

@codecov

codecov Bot commented Jun 8, 2026

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Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 96.66667% with 4 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 69.27%. Comparing base (87fa2ac) to head (508a72a).

Files with missing lines Patch % Lines
pkg/vmcp/cli/serve.go 0.00% 4 Missing ⚠️
Additional details and impacted files
@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main    #5466      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   69.23%   69.27%   +0.04%     
==========================================
  Files         636      637       +1     
  Lines       64724    64821      +97     
==========================================
+ Hits        44810    44905      +95     
- Misses      16605    16607       +2     
  Partials     3309     3309              

☔ View full report in Codecov by Harness.
📢 Have feedback on the report? Share it here.

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  • ❄️ Test Analytics: Detect flaky tests, report on failures, and find test suite problems.

@juancarlosm juancarlosm force-pushed the feat/vmcp-passthrough-headers branch from 0d98f3a to 508a72a Compare June 8, 2026 20:29
@github-actions github-actions Bot added size/XL Extra large PR: 1000+ lines changed and removed size/XL Extra large PR: 1000+ lines changed labels Jun 8, 2026
@github-actions github-actions Bot dismissed their stale review June 8, 2026 20:29

Large PR justification has been provided. Thank you!

@github-actions

github-actions Bot commented Jun 8, 2026

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✅ Large PR justification has been provided. The size review has been dismissed and this PR can now proceed with normal review.

@github-actions github-actions Bot added size/XL Extra large PR: 1000+ lines changed and removed size/XL Extra large PR: 1000+ lines changed labels Jun 8, 2026
@github-actions github-actions Bot added size/XL Extra large PR: 1000+ lines changed and removed size/XL Extra large PR: 1000+ lines changed labels Jun 8, 2026
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vMCP: add header_passthrough outgoing auth strategy to forward dynamic incoming headers to backends

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