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Say Goodbye to Cryptic Tool Names: You Can Now Rename Tools on MCP Portals!

Cloudflare Changelog ★★ View Markdown
#cloudflare#ai#security

Hey there, it's me! Today I found an update that sounds tiny, it's just renaming things, but it's quietly really helpful, so let me share it.

Cloudflare Changelog developers.cloudflare.com

What was announced?

Cloudflare's Changelog announced a new "tool and prompt aliases" feature for MCP server portals.

When you connect a third-party MCP server through a portal, you used to be stuck with whatever names and descriptions that server's author picked. Now you can rename tools and prompts and rewrite their descriptions right on the portal, without modifying the upstream server.

The story so far

Until now, the names the server author chose came through as-is. A vague name like super_cool_tool makes life harder for everyone. Here's how the original post puts it:

Unclear names make it harder for AI agents to select the right tool and harder for users to understand what is available.

What changes

That super_cool_tool can now become something clear like search_customer_records, with a description tailored to your organization. Clearer names help AI agents pick the right tool and help people understand what they're looking at.

Any tool you've changed shows a Modified label in the tools list, so administrators can see at a glance which ones have been customized.

Dive Deep

Aliases override the metadata that MCP clients receive, and you can set them at two levels:

  • Per portal: Applies only within a specific portal, and takes precedence over server-level aliases.
  • Per server: Applies across all portals that use that server.

You can reset an alias at any time to restore the original upstream name, so feel free to experiment. For the full steps, check out the Tool and prompt aliases docs.

Wrap-up

  • Rename tools and prompts and edit their descriptions on the portal, without touching the upstream server
  • Set aliases per portal (higher priority) or per server
  • Modified items get a Modified label, and you can reset anytime

If you run MCP server portals for your team and you've been wishing a certain tool name were clearer, this one's for you!

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