Security & authentication

TaTi involves three layers: who reaches the UI, which secrets go to MCPs, and what actions the model can actually perform on your systems.

1. User auth (TaTi UI)

• TATI_AUTH_REQUIRED — when true, users must sign in before chat.
• TATI_SESSION_TTL_DAYS — session lifetime; shorten it on shared workstations.

Local auth does not secure MCPs by itself: if an attacker reaches the network where MCP bridges run, they can call them without TaTi. Put MCPs behind a firewall or private network.

2. Secrets and tokens

Practice	Detail
Never in Git	.env stays ignored; use CI secrets for pipelines.
Least privilege	GitHub/GitLab tokens with minimal scopes; Slack bots limited to required channels.
Rotation	Rotate tokens after someone leaves or a suspected leak.

3. Write safeguards

Several bridges separate read vs write:

• PostgreSQL MCP — MCP_POSTGRES_READ_ONLY=true until you validate write use cases.
• OpenMetadata — OPENMETADATA_ALLOW_MUTATIONS + confirmation token for sensitive tools.
• GitHub / GitLab — MCP_WRITE_CONFIRM_TOKEN: destructive actions may require an explicit value in the tool call.

Document internally who may bypass these safeguards.

4. Network and exposure

• Do not expose MCP ports on the internet without TLS and ACLs.
• For OpenMetadata, Dagster, or Airflow on host.docker.internal, the MCP container talks to your host — that path must be controlled.

5. Personal data and compliance

If chats or metadata contain personal data, adjust retention, logging, and notices under your framework (GDPR, etc.). This repo does not provide legal templates.

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Next: Troubleshooting for network symptoms and auth errors.