General availability (GA) launch of Model Context Protocol (MCP) in API hub

## Feature Feature **General availability (GA) launch of Model Context Protocol (MCP) in API hub** The API hub MCP server is [Generally Available (GA)](https://cloud.google.com/products#product-launch-stages). This release enables seamless integration between your AI agents and API hub, allowing your applications to discover, query, and manage your API ecosystem using natural language. **What's new in GA** * **Expanded read and write capabilities**: AI agents can create, update, and delete APIs, versions, specs, and deployments. They can also configure and deploy MCP discovery proxies in Apigee. * **Global endpoint routing**: Connect to the API hub MCP server using the global endpoint (`apihub.googleapis.com/mcp`), in addition to the supported regional endpoints. For a list of supported regions, see the [API hub MCP reference](https://cloud.google.com/apigee/docs/reference/apis/apihub/mcp#server-endpoints). * **Granular OAuth scopes**: Use service-specific OAuth scopes (`apihub.readonly` and `apihub.readwrite`) for more secure access. * **Model Armor integration**: Protect MCP tool invocations from prompt-injection and other attacks by integrating with Model Armor. For configuration details and a complete list of available tools, see [API hub MCP reference](https://cloud.google.com/apigee/docs/reference/apis/apihub/mcp). ## Feature Feature **Configure and deploy MCP servers with API hub RPC** API hub now includes a new RPC, `ConfigureAndDeployServer`, which enables the configuration and deployment of Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers directly to an Apigee runtime. For more information, see [Manage MCP proxies](https://cloud.google.com/apigee/docs/apihub/manage-mcp-proxies) and the [API hub reference](https://cloud.google.com/apigee/docs/reference/apis/apihub). ## Announcement Announcement ### v1.16.8 On July 24, 2026 we released an updated version of the Apigee hybrid software, v1.16.8. * For information on upgrading, see [Upgrading Apigee hybrid to version 1.16](https://cloud.google.com/apigee/docs/hybrid/v1.16/upgrade). * For information on new installations, see [The big picture](https://cloud.google.com/apigee/docs/hybrid/v1.16/big-picture). **Note:** This is a patch release: The container images used in patch releases are integrated with the Apigee hybrid Helm charts. Upgrading to a patch via the Helm chart automatically updates the images. No manual image changes are typically needed. For information on container image support in Apigee hybrid releases, see [Apigee release process](https://cloud.google.com/apigee/docs/release/apigee-release-process#apigee-hybrid-container-images). ## Fix Fixed #### Fixed in this release | Bug ID | Description | | ------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **493354568** | **Fixed an issue where component-specific nodeSelector configurations are ignored in Helm charts.** | ## Feature Feature **Runtime rollout strategy configuration** In this release, you can configure the rollout strategy used when updating runtime (message processor) ReplicaSets by setting the [runtime.release.strategy](https://cloud.google.com/apigee/docs/hybrid/v1.16/config-prop-ref#runtime-release-strategy) property (with options `rolling`, `scale-down-first`, or `none`) or per-environment with `envs[].components.runtime.release.strategy` in your overrides configuration file. The property defaults to `rolling`. ## Security Security Various security and CVE fixes are included in this release.