You'll noticeTier: how much it should matter to you
2Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
2Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
MCPArea: what it touches
ImprovementsKind: in v2.1.273,
ImprovementsSection of the release
What
Organizations can control which MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers Claude Code is allowed to use through settings like allowManagedMcpServersOnly and allowedMcpServers. Previously these were read from a single merged settings object. Now:
Claude Code computes these values by combining the highest-priority settings source (the "slot") with the list of admin policy tiers, so a policy set only in a lower-priority admin settings source can still take effect even if there's no explicit override in the higher-priority one.
If the top-priority settings slot doesn't explicitly set allowManagedMcpServersOnly to false, Claude Code now falls back to an allowlist derived from the admin tiers rather than ignoring it.
A new startup warning lists any MCP-related policy keys that are set in a lower-precedence managed settings source and are therefore not being applied, and points admins to the /status command to see which keys are affected.
Why
Before this change, an MCP allowlist or lock configured only in a lower-priority admin settings file could be silently ignored if it wasn't also set at the top level, leaving organizations less protected than intended. Now the policy is inherited correctly, and when a setting is still being shadowed by a higher-priority source, admins get a clear warning instead of a silent gap.
The entry above is what we published on the day. These lines were added later, as Anthropic's own pages caught up, and they sit beside the original rather than replacing it.
Added sinceA small documentation edit on Code in Claude Desktop on 3P touched a line naming allowManagedMcpServersOnly after this was published.| `allowedPluginMcpServers` | `strictPluginOnlyCustomization` set to `["mcp"]` together with an `allowedMcpServers` list holding your entries and `allowManagedMcpServersOnly`, whether or not `managedMcpServers` is set. MCP servers bundled …third-party/claude-desktop/codesee the edit
Added sinceA small documentation edit on Claude apps gateway for Amazon Bedrock, Claude Platform on AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Foundry touched a line naming allowedMcpServers after this was published.Six parent-supplied settings pass the filter even with all five locks set. Under the default first-wins setting, an admin value blocks the parent's only when it sits in the highest-priority admin source, except for `allowedMcpServers` whil…claude-apps-gatewaysee the edit
Confirmed sinceAnthropic's documentation has since written up allowManagedMcpServersOnly, on Claude apps gateway for Amazon Bedrock, Claude Platform on AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Foundry.* **`allowedMcpServers`**: Claude Code honors a parent-supplied allowlist when no admin list is in force. `allowManagedMcpServersOnly` doesn't block it, because the lock enforces whichever list wins as the managed value, including a parent…claude-apps-gatewaysee the edit
Confirmed sinceAnthropic's documentation has since written up allowedMcpServers, on Claude apps gateway for Amazon Bedrock, Claude Platform on AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Foundry.From an admin source below the winner, the two sandbox locks still apply, and `allowManagedPermissionRulesOnly` still blocks parent-supplied allow rules and `additionalDirectories`. On Claude Code v2.1.273 or later, the MCP server lock als…claude-apps-gatewaysee the edit
How sure we are
Two sources agreeTwo things we can check say the same as this entry.
Anthropic's documentation agreesAnthropic's documentation has since written up allowedMcpServers, on Claude apps gateway for Amazon Bedrock, Claude Platform on AWS, Google…
Anthropic's release notes agreeFixed allowManagedMcpServersOnly, deniedMcpServers and disableClaudeAiConnectors set via MDM or managed-settings.json being ignored when…
