Public Containers
By default, Wire containers are private: only people in your organization who hold a grant on the container can reach it. Making a container public opens it to every Wire user. Anyone who connects gets read-only access to it automatically, without you having to share it with them one by one.
Public means “readable by any signed-in Wire user”, not “readable by the anonymous internet”. A visitor signs in when they connect, and their MCP client handles that prompt for them.
When to Use Public Containers
Section titled “When to Use Public Containers”Public containers are useful when you want to share context openly:
- Publish documentation or knowledge bases that AI agents can query
- Give external collaborators read access without adding them to your organization
- List your container in the Wire Explore directory for discovery
Making a Container Public
Section titled “Making a Container Public”- Open your container in the Wire dashboard
- Go to Container Settings
- Toggle Public Access on
Only Owners and Admins can change container visibility. See Roles & Permissions for details.
What a Visitor Experiences
Section titled “What a Visitor Experiences”Someone you send the MCP URL to goes through this once:
- They add the URL to their AI tool, the same install command as any other Wire container.
- The tool opens a browser for sign-in. Wire uses OAuth 2.1, so the client drives the prompt and nobody has to paste a token by hand. Creating an account takes a few seconds and costs nothing.
- Wire grants them read-only access to the container the moment they authenticate.
- The read tools appear in their client and they can start querying.
The container then shows up in their Wire dashboard alongside anything else shared with them, so the next agent they connect can reach it without repeating the setup.
What a Public Visitor Can Do
Section titled “What a Public Visitor Can Do”Read-only, and only on the container you made public.
| Tool | Public visitor |
|---|---|
wire_explore | Yes |
wire_search | Yes |
wire_navigate | Yes |
wire_query | Yes, if the owner has switched it on |
wire_status | Yes, if the owner has switched it on |
wire_write | No |
wire_delete | No |
wire_claim | No |
Write tools are hidden from public visitors entirely. They don’t appear in tools/list.
REST API
Section titled “REST API”| Endpoint | Public visitor |
|---|---|
GET /container/:id/status | Yes |
GET /container/:id/files | No |
POST /container/:id/files | No |
DELETE /container/:id/files/:fileId | No |
POST /container/:id/claim | No |
REST calls carry an API key or bearer token, the same as on a private container. See the REST API reference for full endpoint documentation.
Who Still Has Write Access
Section titled “Who Still Has Write Access”Public visibility changes nothing about who can write. Writing, deleting, and uploading files stay with the container’s creator, anyone holding an editor or admin grant on it, and agents authorized on it. Making a container public does not widen that set, and making it private again does not narrow it.
Credit Usage
Section titled “Credit Usage”Visitors consume credits from your organization’s balance. Each wire_explore and wire_search call costs the same as it would for your own team. Monitor usage in the dashboard billing section.
The activity you see is the usage itself, not who generated it. Readers from outside your organization are not listed by name on your dashboard.
Making a Container Private Again
Section titled “Making a Container Private Again”Toggle Public Access off in Container Settings. Access is revoked immediately: the container drops out of visitors’ dashboards, and their next request returns 403 Forbidden. People with an explicit grant keep the access their grant gives them.
Next Steps
Section titled “Next Steps”- Authentication — OAuth and API key setup
- Sharing Containers — Grants, and who can write
- REST API — Programmatic container access
- Roles & Permissions — Who can change visibility