📌Overview

Purpose: This framework provides an implementation of the Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, aimed at facilitating integration with various large language model (LLM) clients for educational purposes.

Overview: The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard designed to standardize the way applications supply context to LLMs. It establishes a flexible and robust framework for connecting AI applications to a variety of data sources and tools, enhancing the utility of LLMs.

Key Features:

Pre-built Integrations: MCP offers a growing list of integrations that allow LLMs to connect directly to different data sources and tools, simplifying the setup process for developers.
Vendor Flexibility: Users can easily switch between multiple LLM providers and vendors without needing extensive changes to their applications, promoting versatility and adaptability.
Data Security Best Practices: The protocol includes established best practices designed to secure data within user infrastructures, ensuring compliance and privacy.

MCP Server Example

This repository contains an implementation of a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for educational purposes. It demonstrates how to build a functional MCP server that can integrate with various LLM clients.

To follow the complete tutorial, please refer to the YouTube video tutorial.

What is MCP?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open protocol that standardizes how applications provide context to LLMs. Think of MCP like a USB-C port for AI applications - it provides a standardized way to connect AI models to different data sources and tools.

Key Benefits

A growing list of pre-built integrations that your LLM can directly plug into
Flexibility to switch between LLM providers and vendors
Best practices for securing your data within your infrastructure

Architecture Overview

MCP follows a client-server architecture where a host application can connect to multiple servers:

MCP Hosts: Programs like Claude Desktop, IDEs, or AI tools that want to access data through MCP
MCP Clients: Protocol clients that maintain 1:1 connections with servers
MCP Servers: Lightweight programs that expose specific capabilities through the standardized Model Context Protocol
Data Sources: Both local (files, databases) and remote services (APIs) that MCP servers can access

Core MCP Concepts

MCP servers can provide three main types of capabilities:

Resources: File-like data that can be read by clients (like API responses or file contents)
Tools: Functions that can be called by the LLM (with user approval)
Prompts: Pre-written templates that help users accomplish specific tasks

System Requirements

Python 3.10 or higher
MCP SDK 1.2.0 or higher
uv package manager

Getting Started

Installing uv Package Manager

On MacOS/Linux:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Make sure to restart your terminal afterwards to ensure that the uv command gets picked up.

Project Setup

Create and initialize the project:

# Create a new directory for our project
uv init mcp-server
cd mcp-server

# Create virtual environment and activate it
uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows use: .venv\Scripts\activate

# Install dependencies
uv add "mcp[cli]" httpx

Create the server implementation file:

touch main.py

Running the Server

Start the MCP server:

uv run main.py

The server will start and be ready to accept connections

Connecting to Claude Desktop

Install Claude Desktop from the official website
Configure Claude Desktop to use your MCP server:

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "mcp-server": {
            "command": "uv",  # It's better to use the absolute path to the uv command
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/YOUR/mcp-server",
                "run",
                "main.py"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Restart Claude Desktop

Troubleshooting

If your server isn't being picked up by Claude Desktop:

Check the configuration file path and permissions
Verify the absolute path in the configuration is correct
Ensure uv is properly installed and accessible
Check Claude Desktop logs for any error messages

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

mcp-server-example