MCP license management

MCP license management happens under My Account → MCP Self-hosted on addocore.com. Each license shows its key, a Download button and the tabs Overview, Tools, Seats, Add-ons and Advanced. Changes there reach your running mcp-core at the next license check, or right away after a manual refresh.

Where does MCP license management start?

The Licenses page is the starting point of MCP license management and lists every self-hosted license on your account, one block per license. The block title is the license key. The Download button next to it only appears while the license status is active; it fetches the install bundle described in MCP Self-hosted download.

If you have no license yet, the page says “You have no MCP licenses yet.” An MCP Hosted seat does not appear here: it has its own page, My Account → MCP Hosted.

What is on the Overview tab?

The Details tab shows the license status, a Trial badge for trial licenses, the Valid until date and the Entitlements: the list of slugs such as core or tool:missive that decide which tools mcp-core loads. Below that, the page repeats the rule for every change in MCP license management: “Changes here take effect at the next automatic check (max 72h), or immediately by running: docker exec mcp-core npm run refresh-license”.

The table under it lists each recurring line on the license: Subscription, Status, Amount, Renews and Actions. Status reads Active, Payment issue, Suspended, Cancelled or Revoked. The Cancel button and what each status means are covered in MCP license renewal.

How does MCP license management handle seats?

A seat is one identity, a person or a device, that connects to mcp-core with its own token, its own set of tools and its own read-only or read-write mode per tool. MCP Self-hosted includes 3 seats. More cost € 18,15 excl. VAT: € 15,00 per year each, via Extra seat.

To add one, open the Seats tab:

• Fill in a Label, for example “Claude Desktop” or “Laptop Anna”.
• Tick each tool this seat gets, and pick read-only or read-write next to it.
• Click Add seat. The new row shows the token with a Copy button.

Each row has two actions. Regenerate token replaces the token; the confirmation says the old one stops working, so update it wherever that seat is used. Revoke removes the seat. When you reach the limit, the tab shows “You have reached the maximum number of seats for this license.”

Your server validates tokens against the list it received at its last license check. A new token works, and a revoked one stops working, once mcp-core has checked again. Run the refresh command below to make that immediate; it is the step people forget most in MCP license management.

The first download of a license creates a seat labelled “Default install” with every entitlement. Its token is the BEARER_TOKEN in the bundled .env and in claude-plugin/.mcp.json. If you regenerate that token, put the new value in .env as well and run ./mcp-update.sh, because mcp-core uses it to fetch credentials from the portal.

What is the Tools tab for?

The Tools tab is the part of MCP license management that holds the environment values your add-ons need, such as MISSIVE_API_TOKEN or the WooCommerce consumer key, grouped per add-on. The values are stored encrypted and shared by every seat on the license. Leave a field blank to keep its current value. Each field shows Set or Not set; a saved secret displays as “•••••••• (unchanged)”.

Add-ons that talk to more than one store or site, such as WooCommerce, WordPress and Lightspeed, keep a list of those stores here. On the Seats tab you tick the stores and click Save selection. A self-hosted mcp-core only reads the ticks on the seat in its .env (SEAT_ID, normally “Default install”), and every seat on that container reaches those stores. So tick the stores you need on “Default install”.

mcp-core fetches these values at startup through the SEAT_ID and HOSTED_SECRETS_ENDPOINT lines in .env. When a value changes, the next license check notices it and the container restarts itself to load it. A value you typed into .env yourself wins: mcp-core never overwrites a variable that is already filled in. Leave the line empty in .env if you want to manage it from the portal.

How do you add or remove add-ons on a license?

The Add-ons tab brings MCP license management and billing together. It lists the add-ons you can attach to this license, each with its yearly price. Tick or untick them and click Update addons. Adding an add-on starts its own yearly billing at once. Removing one stops future billing but keeps the tool working until the end of the period you paid for.

This tab needs automatic billing. Without it, the tab says that automatic billing isn’t set up for this license yet. You can still buy an add-on through the normal checkout. Either way, you don’t need a new download: the tool is already in the image and loads after the next check. See the MCP Self-hosted and add-on model for the background.

What are activations in MCP license management?

An activation is one running mcp-core container. MCP Self-hosted includes 1. mcp-core identifies itself with an instance id that it generates on first start and stores in ./state/.instance-id. The Advanced tab lists each one with its Last check date and a Release button.

A new server, or a deleted ./state folder, produces a new instance id. If that exceeds the limit, the license check answers: “This license has reached its maximum number of active installations. Release an unused activation from your account to continue.” Release the old activation, then run a refresh on the new server; MCP license management needs no support ticket for this. Activations without a check for 30 days are released automatically. Copy the whole install folder, including ./state, when you move servers and the activation moves with it.

How do you apply changes right away?

Run this on the server after any change in MCP license management:

docker exec mcp-core npm run refresh-license

It triggers a normal license check, with no restart and no download. Then ask Claude to run the mcp_status tool to confirm the license state, the entitlements and the tool modes of your seat.

Good MCP license management comes down to a short loop: change something in My Account, refresh, verify with mcp_status. Next, read MCP seats to set up separate seats per person or device.