A Step-by-Step Guide to Connecting OpenWebUI with a Docker MCP Toolkit on MacOS
Z
Zack Saadioui
8/11/2025
A Step-by-Step Guide to Connecting OpenWebUI with a Docker MCP Toolkit on MacOS
So, you've been diving into the world of local LLMs & you're running OpenWebUI, but you want to SUPERCHARGE its capabilities. You've heard about this thing called the Model Context Protocol (MCP) toolkit & how it can connect your AI to external tools, but getting it all to play nicely together on a Mac can feel a bit… cryptic.
Honestly, it's not as complicated as it seems. I've gone through the process myself, & I'm here to lay it all out for you, step-by-step. We're going to get our hands a little dirty with Docker, but I promise, by the end of this, you'll have a powerful new set of tools at your AI's disposal.
First Things First: What Are We Even Doing?
Alright, let's break it down.
OpenWebUI: This is your user-friendly, self-hosted interface for interacting with large language models. Think of it as the sleek dashboard for your AI. It's awesome because it runs completely offline & gives you a ton of control.
Docker: This is a platform that lets you run applications in isolated environments called containers. It’s like having a mini-computer for each app, so they don’t interfere with each other. We'll be using Docker to run our MCP tools.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) Toolkit: This is the magic ingredient. MCP is a standard that allows your language model to interact with external tools & services. The toolkit is a collection of these tools that you can run & connect to OpenWebUI. For example, you could have a tool that searches the web, one that checks the weather, or even one that interacts with your smart home devices.
MCPO (MCP OpenAPI Proxy): This is a handy little helper that translates the MCP tool's language into something OpenWebUI can understand. It creates an OpenAPI interface, which is a standard way for applications to talk to each other.
Our goal is to use Docker on your Mac to run an MCP tool & the MCPO proxy, & then tell OpenWebUI how to talk to them. The result? Your AI will be able to use these tools to perform tasks it couldn't do on its own. Pretty cool, right?
Prerequisites: What You'll Need
Before we dive in, let's make sure you have everything you need:
A Mac: This guide is specifically for macOS.
Docker Desktop for Mac: This is the easiest way to get Docker up & running on a Mac. You can download it from the official Docker website.
Homebrew: If you're a developer on a Mac, you probably already have this. If not, it's a package manager that makes installing software a breeze. You can get it at brew.sh.
Node.js: We'll need this for our MCP tool. We'll install it with Homebrew.
A bit of command-line know-how: You don't need to be a terminal wizard, but you should be comfortable opening the Terminal app & running some basic commands.
Step 1: Getting OpenWebUI Running with Docker
If you already have OpenWebUI running in Docker, you can skip this step. If not, here's a quick rundown.
First, you'll want to pull the latest OpenWebUI image from the GitHub Container Registry. Open up your Terminal & run: