What does Portkey Error Code 033 mean, and how can it be resolved for MCP Gateway access?

Chen.Dequan — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 16:06:28 GMT

Issue

Why does an Active Service Gateway API Key with MCP → INVOKE permission receive HTTP 403 / Portkey Error Code 033 when invoking MCP servers provisioned to the same admin-automation workspace in Strata Cloud Manager (SCM)?

Environment / Background

I am evaluating the PRISMA AIRS / AI Gateway MCP functionality in an SCM trial tenant.

A Tumor Board MCP server is registered in:

AI Security → AI Gateway → Integrations → MCP Registry

and provisioned to the admin-automation workspace.

Its catalog entry is:

MCP server: tumor-board-mcp-server
Gateway URL: https://mcp-aigw.portkey.ai/tumor-board-mcp-server/mcp
Status: Active
Backend authentication type: Headers
Workspace: admin-automation

The backend MCP server itself has already been independently validated: MCP initialize, tools/list, and tools/call work when invoking the backend directly.

I also created an SCM Service Gateway API Key:

Key name: tb-mcp-poc-client
Type: Service
Status: Active
Permission: MCP → INVOKE
Other permissions: disabled
Workspace used during creation: admin-automation

Critical Information / Reproduction

I can reproduce the same failure against two different MCP servers.

1. Tumor Board MCP Server

Request:

POST https://mcp-aigw.portkey.ai/tumor-board-mcp-server/mcp

with:

x-portkey-api-key: <active Service Gateway API key>

and a valid MCP initialize JSON-RPC request.

Result:

HTTP 403 Forbidden

Portkey Error: Forbidden!. Error Code: 033

Request information:

Time: 2026-10-29 15:15:46 GMT
CF-RAY: a5232336ad43356f-ORD

2. HR MCP Server — A/B comparison

The hr-mcp server is also provisioned to admin-automation, but its backend Auth Type is none.

Request:

POST https://mcp-aigw.portkey.ai/hr-mcp/mcp

using the same Service Gateway API Key and the same MCP initialize request.

Result:

HTTP 403 Forbidden

Portkey Error: Forbidden!. Error Code: 033

Request information:

Time: 2026-10-29 15:16:14 GMT
CF-RAY: a52323e5bd0a356f-ORD

Because both MCP servers return the same Error 033—including hr-mcp, whose backend authentication type is none—the failure does not appear to be specific to the Tumor Board backend authentication.

Additional Tenant Observations

Workspace:

Workspace: admin-automation
Workspace members: 0
No workspace rate limit
No workspace budget limit
No workspace guardrail assigned
No relevant MCP policy found under Policies & Profiles

User Gateway API Key:

User key creation shows: “No users found”

OAuth 2.1 discovery/testing:

Protected Resource Metadata discovery succeeds
Authorization Server Metadata discovery succeeds
Dynamic Client Registration succeeds (HTTP 201)
Authorization endpoint fails with:
- access_denied
- Organisation identity could not be resolved

Service Gateway API Key:

Status: Active
Permission: MCP → INVOKE
Request header: x-portkey-api-key
Result against both MCP servers: HTTP 403 / Portkey Error 033

AI Gateway Observability:

The rejected MCP requests do not appear in Analytics, Errors, or Logs for the admin-automation workspace.

Questions

What does Portkey Error Code 033 specifically mean?
Is x-portkey-api-key with an Active Service Gateway API Key and MCP → INVOKE permission supported for non-interactive access to an SCM AI Gateway MCP endpoint such as https://mcp-aigw.portkey.ai/<server-slug>/mcp?
If yes, is any additional organization, workspace, service identity, or MCP-resource authorization required for the Service Gateway API Key?
Is the fact that admin-automation currently has 0 workspace members related to Error 033 for a Service API key, or is that relevant only to the user/OAuth flow?
Could PANW please use the two CF-RAY IDs/timestamps above to determine at which authorization layer the requests are being rejected?

Thank you.

Dequan Chen, Ph.D.
Mayo (MC)

Re: What does Portkey Error Code 033 mean, and how can it be resolved for MCP Gateway access?

Chen.Dequan — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 22:53:16 GMT

Additional finding regarding the suggested x-portkey-virtual-key remediation

Strata Copilot, citing PANW technical documentation, indicated that the HTTP 403 / Portkey Error 033 can occur because my MCP requests contain x-portkey-api-key but not the workspace virtual key in x-portkey-virtual-key.

I attempted to follow the documented remediation. In the current SCM UI, workspace creation is performed through:

AI Security → AI Gateway → Workspace Control → Create from Workspace Management → + New Workspace

I created a new workspace named mcp-poc-validation specifically to capture the generated virtual key. No virtual key was displayed during or after workspace creation.

To verify this was not a one-time UI issue, I repeated the creation. SCM successfully created a second, distinct mcp-poc-validation workspace, but again no virtual key was displayed.

The two workspaces have distinct workspace identifiers/slugs and distinct Scope Name values in Workspace Management, confirming that two separate workspace objects were successfully created. However:

no field is labeled Virtual Key or Workspace Virtual Key;
Workspace Control does not display a virtual key;
Workspace Management displays a Scope Name, but the UI/documentation does not identify Scope Name as the x-portkey-virtual-key credential;
the workspace details link/copy control only copies the SCM workspace URL.

PANW documentation/Strata Copilot also states that the workspace virtual key is shown only once and cannot subsequently be retrieved, regenerated, or rotated.

Could PANW please clarify:

Is x-portkey-virtual-key actually required for the current SCM MCP Gateway endpoint when using an Active Service Gateway API Key with MCP → INVOKE?
If it is required, where/how is the virtual key generated and displayed in the current Workspace Management / Workspace Control UI, given that two newly created workspaces displayed no virtual key?
Is the Workspace Management Scope Name a non-secret workspace identifier, or is it intended to be supplied as x-portkey-virtual-key?
Is the current SCM trial-tenant UI using a newer MCP Gateway authentication model in which workspace context is derived differently from the general AI Gateway virtual-key model?

I have not attempted to use the workspace Scope Name, slug, or workspace UUID as x-portkey-virtual-key because none of these values is identified by SCM as a virtual-key credential.

topic What does Portkey Error Code 033 mean, and how can it be resolved for MCP Gateway access? in Strata Cloud Manager

What does Portkey Error Code 033 mean, and how can it be resolved for MCP Gateway access?

Re: What does Portkey Error Code 033 mean, and how can it be resolved for MCP Gateway access?