Hekate Gate vs MCP gateway

An MCP gateway routes and mediates tool access. Hekate Gate reviews whether the tool, scope, chain, approval boundary, and receipt evidence are safe enough for the agent's task.

DimensionHekate GateMCP gateway
Primary purposeSecurity preflight and production approval for agent tool use.Tool aggregation, routing, auth mediation, and operational access control.
Manifest reviewClassifies dangerous verbs, sensitive data paths, external sinks, and approval boundaries.May list, proxy, or restrict tools but does not necessarily score risk.
Tool-chain riskDetects combinations such as database read to public Slack post or filesystem secrets to external webhook.Usually evaluates tools individually at request or routing time.
Payment awarenessChecks x402 price, recipient, network, budget, receipt support, and settlement evidence.Often not payment-aware unless custom logic is added.
Receipt outputIssues signed preflight receipts and evidence hashes.Usually emits logs, traces, or gateway access records.
Best fitSecurity teams asking whether an agent/tool/workflow can go to production.Platform teams standardizing how agents connect to MCP servers.

Takeaway

Use an MCP gateway to route tools. Use Hekate Gate to decide whether the agent should be allowed to use those tools for this task under this policy.

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