Bifrost gateway: test tool permissions, budgets and failover

Separate agent roles with virtual keys

Thanks to Maxim AI for sponsoring this video.

The Northstar company, customers and refunds are synthetic demo data. The point of the test is whether the gateway enforces the role, independently of the prompt.

1. Connect the demo MCP servers and create separate support and finance virtual keys.
2. List the tool calls each role should be allowed and denied.
3. Try the refund-related calls with both keys and inspect the actual allowed and blocked responses.

Test a provider failure

A failover rule needs to be exercised before it can be relied on.

1. Trigger the provider failure used in the walkthrough.
2. Check the request trace to see whether the intended alternate provider handled the call.
3. Inspect both LLM and MCP logs so a tool failure is not mistaken for a model failure.

Check enterprise key restrictions

The enterprise section adds budgets, expiry and model restrictions without exposing the underlying provider key to the app.

1. Create a virtual key with the intended budget, expiry and permitted models.
2. Make one permitted request and one deliberately disallowed model request.
3. Confirm the log records the expected outcome for both. Keep the synthetic test separate from production credentials.

The takeaway

A prompt asking an agent to behave is not the same as a gateway refusing a prohibited request. Verify enforcement in the logs.