Limitations and Troubleshooting

Controlled Availability

MCP Workspace is available to a limited set of customers. Moveworks is validating the experience and gathering feedback, so capabilities and limits may change. To request access, register your interest.

This page first describes the current boundaries of MCP Workspace, then walks through the four stages of a failed request.

Current Limitations

Limitation	What it means
Universal Assistant only	MCP tools run in the Universal Assistant. Specialized Assistant support is not available during Controlled Availability.
Governance is server-level	You can enable, disable, and control access to a server, not individual tools within it.
No confirmation gate for writes	The assistant can run a write without asking for confirmation. Start with read and lookup use cases, and review any server that exposes destructive actions.
No automatic action chaining across MCP servers	Name the apps and each intended step. The assistant does not automatically compose a complex cross-app workflow from a vague goal.
Long-running tools can time out	Tool calls run synchronously and can time out at roughly 60 seconds. Keep tools and requests bounded.
Tool descriptions control routing quality	Tool names and descriptions come from the server. You cannot edit them in Agent Studio, so improve them at the source when you can.
Servers are added manually	MCP Workspace does not sync a catalog from an MCP registry or aggregator.
Tools only	Resources, Prompts, and Sampling are not supported. Moveworks connects to remote MCP servers, not local servers.

Check What the Assistant Did

Start by identifying whether the assistant selected the expected MCP tool and what happened next.

Reveal AI Reasoning: In the assistant, open More info > Reveal AI Reasoning on a response. This is the fastest first check for a user.
Chat Playback: Admins can review the available and selected tools for a conversation. A conversation can take roughly 10 minutes to appear.
Agent Studio logs: MCP call details are not available at the start of Controlled Availability. Support for the full request, response, and error for each call is planned during Controlled Availability.

MCP tool calls use the format mcp__<server>__<tool>. If you expected that prefix but see a plugin or Enterprise_Search instead, focus on tool selection.

Assistant response with the More info button highlighted. — Open More info on a response, then select Reveal AI Reasoning.

Reveal AI Reasoning panel showing an MCP tool call with an mcp__ prefix. — Reveal AI Reasoning shows the tool call made for a response, including the mcp__ server and tool name.

Chat Playback page showing a conversation and the plugin selection panel. — Chat Playback lets admins review the conversation alongside available and selected tools.

Work Through the Four Stages

Work through these stages in order. The first one that fails is where to focus.

Stage 1: Connection and Authentication

What you see	Likely cause	What to do
Error adding or authenticating a server, or you cannot generate a token	The source app’s OAuth configuration is wrong	Follow the source app’s OAuth guidance, then run Preview Tools again.
The server worked yesterday but fails now	An access token expired or a refresh token was revoked	Re-authenticate or reconnect the server.
The server works for some users but not others	The affected users have not completed first-time in-chat authentication	Have each affected user sign in when the assistant prompts them.

Stage 2: Tool Discovery and Selection

What you see	Likely cause	What to do
A plugin runs instead of the MCP tool	Another tool can plausibly handle the same request	Reduce the overlap. In the moment, have the user name the app, such as “in Linear.”
The assistant calls Enterprise Search, gets nothing, then stops	It stopped before trying the more specific server	Have the user name the app explicitly in the request.
The expected tool never appears as an option	The tool description is too vague to match	Improve the description at the source app or server. It is view-only in Agent Studio.

Stage 3: Tool Execution

What you see	Likely cause	What to do
A long-running call fails after roughly 60 seconds	The tool exceeded the synchronous timeout	Try a narrower request or a more focused tool.
The answer is truncated or degraded after a large result	The tool returned too much data	Scope the request more narrowly.
Failures are intermittent and cluster under load	The upstream server is rate-limiting the call	Wait and retry. Check the upstream service for rate limits or errors.
The tool returns something unexpected	The assistant sent wrong or incomplete arguments	Rephrase the request with the entity, project, field, or date range you need.

Stage 4: Response Quality

What you see	Likely cause	What to do
A plausible but wrong result	A broad tool returned data that was not scoped to the right item	Name the entity, project, field, or date range in the request.
The result is technically right but poorly shaped	The response format is not tuned for the request	Rephrase with the format or level of detail you need.
The same request returns different results across runs	The behavior is non-deterministic	Capture examples and escalate. There is no self-service configuration for this today.

Retry Before You Escalate

Before you escalate, try the recovery step that matches the failed stage:

Ask the assistant, “Why didn’t that work?” It can often explain whether sign-in, tool selection, or a tool call failed.
Retry with the app named and the request scoped to the entity, project, field, or date range you need.
If the server works for others but not the affected user, have that user complete the in-chat sign-in flow.

Escalate with Useful Evidence

If you identify the failed stage and do not have a self-service fix, include the following in your escalation:

Conversation URL or ID and the approximate timestamp with timezone.
The failed stage and the exact request.
The affected app and expected mcp__<server>__<tool> name, when known.
Expected and actual behavior.
A screenshot of Reveal AI Reasoning and, when available, Chat Playback.
The user-facing error text and safe server-side correlation details, such as a request ID, HTTP status, or stable error code.
Whether the issue reproduces, the affected pilot group, and any recent connector, server, or tool-description change.

Do not include secrets

Do not include access tokens, refresh tokens, credentials, raw employee data, or unredacted upstream responses in an escalation.