Running Docker MCP Gateway on Linux (Without Docker Desktop)

Docker's MCP Toolkit is a great way to expose Model Context Protocol servers to AI clients like Claude, n8n, or Cursor. Out of the box it's designed for Docker Desktop on macOS and Windows — but what if you want to run it on a headless Linux server? A Raspberry Pi, a VPS, a home lab box? This guide walks through setting it up from scratch on Linux (Debian/Ubuntu, arm64 or amd64), including secrets management, custom MCP server images, and a systemd service that starts automatically on boot. This guide is based on getting it actually working on a Raspberry Pi 5 running Debian 13. Several things that look like they should work on Linux don't — I'll call those out explicitly so you don't waste time on the same dead ends. What We're Building A self-hosted MCP gateway that: Runs any MCP server as a Docker container Exposes them all behind a single HTTP endpoint with Bearer token auth Starts automatically on boot via systemd AI Client → http://your-server:8811/sse → docker-mcp gateway → MCP