Orchestration Quickstart — Math MCP

One command to spin up AURA in orchestration mode with a math tool server:

AURA — the AI agent server running in orchestration mode (mezmo/aura:latest)
Math MCP — an MCP server providing arithmetic, statistics, and trigonometry tools
LibreChat — a ChatGPT-style web UI connected to AURA
Phoenix — an LLM trace viewer for inspecting every tool call, prompt, and token

How Orchestration Mode Works

In orchestration mode AURA routes each request through a coordinator that decides how to respond:

Direct answer — simple, single-step requests are answered immediately
Worker dispatch — complex or multi-step problems are decomposed into a plan and delegated to specialized workers, each with access to a filtered subset of tools
Clarification — vague requests prompt the coordinator to ask for more detail

This quickstart defines three workers backed by the math MCP server:

Worker	Tools	Example task
`arithmetic`	add, subtract, multiply, division, modulo, floor, ceiling, round, sum	”Multiply 12 by 7, then subtract 4”
`statistics`	mean, median, mode, min, max	”Find the mean and median of [3, 7, 2, 9, 5]“
`trigonometry`	sin, cos, tan, arcsin, arccos, arctan, radiansToDegrees, degreesToRadians	”Compute sin(30°) and cos(60°)“

Setup

1. Add your API key

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env and paste your OpenAI (or Anthropic) API key.

2. Start everything

docker compose up --build

The --build flag is required on first run to build the math MCP image.

3. Open the UIs

Service	URL	Description
LibreChat	http://localhost:3080	Chat with your agent
Phoenix	http://localhost:6006	Inspect LLM traces
AURA API	http://localhost:8080	OpenAI-compatible API

LibreChat first-time setup: Create your user account on the signup page. The agent model is pre-configured as “AURA”.

Try It Out

Once everything is up, try these prompts in LibreChat: Direct answer (no workers dispatched):

What is 2 + 2?

Multi-step orchestration (coordinator dispatches arithmetic worker):

Calculate (3 + 7) × 2, then subtract 5 from the result.

Mixed domain (coordinator dispatches arithmetic + statistics workers):

Multiply each of [1, 2, 3, 4] by 3, then find the mean of the results.

Clarification trigger:

Compute the thing.

Watch Phoenix at http://localhost:6006 to see the full trace of coordinator planning and worker execution.

Customize

Edit config.toml and restart AURA:

docker compose restart aura

Switch LLM provider

Uncomment the Anthropic block in config.toml and set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in .env.

Adjust routing behavior

[orchestration]
allow_direct_answers = true   # set false to always dispatch workers
allow_clarification = true    # set false to never ask for clarification
max_planning_cycles = 2       # coordinator retries on low-quality plans
quality_threshold = 0.7       # minimum plan quality score (0.0–1.0)

Add or modify workers

Each [orchestration.worker.<name>] section defines a worker. The mcp_filter list controls which tools from the math MCP server that worker can use.

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  docker compose                                         │
│                                                         │
│  ┌────────────┐     ┌──────────────────────────────┐    │
│  │ LibreChat  │────▶│   AURA (orchestration mode)  │    │
│  │   :3080    │     │           :3000              │    │
│  └─────┬──────┘     └──────┬───────────────────────┘    │
│        │                   │                            │
│  ┌─────┴──────┐     ┌──────▼──────┐   ┌────────────┐   │
│  │  MongoDB   │     │  Math MCP   │   │  Phoenix   │   │
│  │ (LibreChat │     │    :8081    │   │   :6006    │   │
│  │  storage)  │     │             │   │            │   │
│  └────────────┘     └─────────────┘   └────────────┘   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
         ▲                                    ▲
         │                                    │
      Browser                           OTel traces

LibreChat sends chat requests to AURA’s OpenAI-compatible /v1/chat/completions endpoint
AURA runs a coordinator LLM that routes requests, dispatches workers, and streams responses
Math MCP exposes arithmetic, statistics, and trigonometry tools via the MCP protocol
Phoenix receives OpenTelemetry traces so you can inspect every coordinator and worker step

Troubleshooting

math-mcp build fails The Dockerfile clones EthanHenrickson/math-mcp from GitHub. Ensure you have internet access during docker compose up --build. LibreChat shows “no models available” AURA may still be starting (it waits for math-mcp to be healthy first). Check docker compose logs aura --tail 5 and refresh. Reset everything

docker compose down -v

Getting Started

Configuration

Features

CLI Reference

Web Server Reference

Orchestration Quickstart — Math MCP

How Orchestration Mode Works

Setup

1. Add your API key

2. Start everything

3. Open the UIs

Try It Out

Customize

Switch LLM provider

Adjust routing behavior

Add or modify workers

Architecture

Troubleshooting

​How Orchestration Mode Works

​Setup

​1. Add your API key

​2. Start everything

​3. Open the UIs

​Try It Out

​Customize

​Switch LLM provider

​Adjust routing behavior

​Add or modify workers

​Architecture

​Troubleshooting

How Orchestration Mode Works

Setup

1. Add your API key

2. Start everything

3. Open the UIs

Try It Out

Customize

Switch LLM provider

Adjust routing behavior

Add or modify workers

Architecture

Troubleshooting