Remote MCP server
A remote MCP server is a Model Context Protocol server that runs on a provider's infrastructure and is reached over HTTPS, so an AI client connects to it with a URL and an OAuth sign-in instead of installing and running anything locally.
MCP servers come in two shapes. A local server runs as a process on your own machine: the client launches it, and you paste API keys into a configuration file yourself. A remote server runs on the provider's infrastructure and is reached over HTTPS at an address — there is nothing to install, nothing to keep running, and nothing to update.
The practical differences matter more than they sound. There is no runtime to set up, no secret sitting in a local JSON file, and no version drift because the provider patches the server. Authorization is handled with OAuth: you sign in to the underlying account, the server stores a scoped token, and that token is never exposed to the AI model or pasted anywhere by you. And because nothing depends on your desktop, the same connection works from a web or mobile app.
The trade-offs are real. A remote server cannot touch local files or a local database, so it is the wrong tool for repo and filesystem work. More importantly, you are delegating access to your accounts to a third party. That makes a few things non-negotiable when you evaluate one: narrow OAuth scopes, per-customer isolation so one tenant's tools can never reach another's data, audit logging, and an approval step before anything is written.
Opus Growth is a remote MCP server for advertising, at mcp.opus-growth.com. Paste the URL into your AI app, sign in with Google, and you are connected in roughly a minute — hosted OAuth means no developer token, no API keys, no self-hosting and no ETL pipeline to build. It exposes a 221-tool catalogue across ten Google, Microsoft, TikTok and LinkedIn surfaces, keeps each customer's connections isolated, and logs every write. Two of those surfaces are not open yet: Meta Ads is in final platform review, and Business Profile is waiting on Google's API quota approval.
Frequently asked questions
Use local for local things: files, code repositories, databases on your machine. Use remote for cloud accounts such as ad platforms, analytics and CRMs — and remote is required if you want the connection to work from a web or mobile app rather than one desktop.
No. In most apps you paste the server URL into the connector settings, give it a name, and complete an OAuth sign-in. There is no code, no terminal and no key management involved.
That depends on the provider, not on the protocol. Check four things: how narrow the OAuth scopes are, whether customer data is isolated per tenant, whether actions are audit-logged, and whether write actions require your explicit approval.
