# UIVOID > Turn your self-hosted APIs into MCP tools for AI agents. Your API stays on your servers; UIVOID hosts the MCP gateway on a dedicated subdomain. Free, with authentication, hosted databases, scoped permissions, and audit logs. ## Hosting model Your API stays self-hosted, wherever it runs today. UIVOID hosts the MCP gateway at https://.uivoid.app/mcp and forwards tool calls to your API. There is no MCP server to deploy. UIVOID can also run a hosted PostgreSQL database for projects without an API. A self-hosted gateway is not currently offered. ## Product questions ### What is UIVOID? UIVOID turns existing APIs into Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools that AI agents can discover and call. Your API keeps running where it runs today, and UIVOID hosts the MCP gateway in front of it. It adds authentication, scoped read/write/destructive permissions, and an audit trail so teams can operate their backend conversationally. ### Do I need an existing OpenAPI document? No. UIVOID can use an existing OpenAPI or Swagger document, but your API does not need to have one already. The coding-agent setup prompt can inspect your actual API routes, let you choose which to expose, and generate a document for those routes before creating the MCP tools. ### Is UIVOID free, and does my API stay self-hosted? Yes to both. UIVOID is free. Your API keeps running wherever you host it today, on your own servers, cloud, or VPC, and its business logic and data stay there. UIVOID hosts the MCP gateway at https://.uivoid.app/mcp and forwards tool calls to your API, so there is no MCP server for you to deploy or run. The gateway must be able to reach your API over HTTP; a local-only API needs a separately arranged network path. UIVOID does not currently ship a self-hosted gateway. ### Can I build a project without an existing API or database? Yes. Run npx uivoid create my-app --no-discover, then uivoid db create to get a hosted PostgreSQL database (500 MB per database). Define typed tables from a JSON schema and expose list, get, insert, update, or delete operations; each one becomes a described MCP tool and HTTP endpoint on your project's subdomain, with authentication and scopes included. Database credentials stay on the server. ### How does authentication work? UIVOID supports an OAuth 2.1 resource server in front of your existing identity provider, or issued, revocable API keys with explicit scopes. Read, write, and destructive operations have separate permissions, and tool calls are recorded in an audit log. ### How do I connect an AI agent to my API? Start with npx uivoid create my-app or copy the setup prompt for your coding agent. Review the tools and their scopes, then add the resulting MCP URL to an MCP-compatible client such as Claude or Cursor. Destructive tools are unselected by default. ## Official resources - [Homepage](https://uivoid.app/): Product overview, workflow, authentication, and pricing. - [Hosted database](https://uivoid.app/database): Hosted PostgreSQL tables exposed as scoped MCP tools and HTTP endpoints from the CLI, including an example of building an expense-tracking backoffice from one chat. - [FAQ](https://uivoid.app/#faq): Answers to common product questions. - [Setup documentation](https://portal.uivoid.app/docs/setup): Getting started. - [Authentication](https://portal.uivoid.app/docs/authentication): Authentication configuration. - [CLI source](https://github.com/corrideluca/uivoid-cli): UIVOID CLI repository. - [npm package](https://www.npmjs.com/package/uivoid): Install and run the CLI.