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Enabling the MCP Server

  • Updated on Aug 4, 2026
  • Published on Jul 29, 2026
  • 2 minute(s) read
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The Polarity AI Features, which power the built-in chat and LLM-optimized reducers for the MCP, is configured in the Admin panel under Server Configuration.

You must be a Polarity administrator to access these settings.

Step 1:  Enable the MCP Server

  1. Log into the Polarity Server’s operating system CLI with a user who has “write” access to the Polarity Server’s install directory (/app by default).

  2. Open the .env file for editing.

    1. In a standard installation, this file will be located at /app/.env.

  3. Add the following line to the end of the file:

    HERMES_MCP_SERVER=true

  4. Save and close the file.

  5. Restart the Polarity Server containers.

    1. cd /app && sudo ./down.sh && sudo ./up.sh

  1. Log in to the Polarity interface.

  2. Click the “Cog” (or “Gear”) icon in the upper right-hand corner.

  3. Select “Settings” from the drop-down navigation.

  4. Select “Server Configuration”.

  5. Click the “Model Settings” tab from the navigation on the left.

Step 3:  Enable AI

  1. Toggle the AI-enabled switch to the on position.

    1. This activates the AI backend.

    2. Without this toggle, the chat endpoint will return an error, and reducers will not be applied during MCP lookups.

Step 4:  Select a Provider

  1. Use the Provider dropdown to select your AI provider.

    1. The available providers are described in "AI Provider Reference".

    2. Once you select a provider, the Model dropdown will populate with the available models for that provider.

Step 5:  Enter Provider Credentials

Depending on the provider, you will see different credential fields:

Provider

Required Credentials

openai, anthropic, gemini

API Key

bedrock

AWS Access Key ID, AWS Secret Access Key, AWS Region, and optionally AWS Session Token

ollama

Base URL (e.g., http://localhost:11434). No API key required.

openai\_compatible

Base URL (pointing to any OpenAI-compatible API). API Key if required by the endpoint.

All credentials are encrypted at rest using Polarity's Vault cipher.  

They are never stored as plaintext in the database.

Step 6: Configure Advanced Settings (Optional)

Expand the Advanced Settings section to adjust the following parameters:

Field

Default

Description

Temperature

0.7

Controls response randomness. Lower values (0.1-0.3) produce more deterministic, factual responses. For security analysis workflows, values between 0.1 and 0.4 are recommended.

Max Tokens

4096

The maximum number of tokens the model may generate in a single response.

Max Depth

25

The maximum number of sequential tool calls the LLM may make in one conversation turn. Limits runaway agentic loops.

Timeout

Server default

Maximum wait time in milliseconds for a response from the AI provider. Set to 0 to use the server's HTTP idle timeout.

Metric Retention Days

180

How long conversation metrics and token usage records are retained.

Step 7: Test the Configuration

  1. Click the Test Chat button.

    1. Polarity sends a single verification message to the configured AI provider and displays the response.

    2. A successful test confirms that the provider, model, and credentials are correctly configured.

Step 8: Save

  1. Click Save.

    1. The settings take effect immediately.

    2. No server restart is required.