Hello World MCP Server

A simple example of a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that demonstrates basic functionality with greeting tools.

Quick Start

Install dependencies:
pip install -r requirements.txt
Run the server:
Choose one of three transport methods:
# For MCP clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor) - stdio transport python run_stdio.py # For HTTP/REST API testing with curl python run_http.py # For SSE transport (web clients) python run_sse.py
Test the server:
# Test the tools without a client python test_server.py # Test with HTTP API and curl python run_http.py # Then: curl http://localhost:8000/tools

Related MCP server: MCP Server Basic Example

Features

This server provides:

4 tools for creating and managing greetings
1 resource for greeting templates
1 prompt for generating greetings

Documentation

See how-to-run-mcp.md for detailed instructions on:

Running the server locally
Testing with various methods
Integrating with Claude Desktop
Troubleshooting common issues

Project Structure

hello-mcp/ ├── hello_server.py # Main MCP server implementation ├── test_server.py # Test script for tools ├── run_stdio.py # stdio transport for MCP clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor) ├── run_http.py # HTTP API wrapper for curl testing ├── run_sse.py # SSE transport for web clients ├── requirements.txt # Python dependencies ├── Dockerfile # Docker container configuration ├── .dockerignore # Docker ignore file ├── how-to-run-mcp.md # Detailed setup and testing guide ├── claude_desktop_config_example.json # Example Claude Desktop configuration ├── README.md # This file └── CLAUDE.md # Claude Code guidance file

Transport Methods

This server can run in three different modes:

stdio transport (run_stdio.py) - For MCP clients like Claude Desktop and Cursor
HTTP transport (run_http.py) - REST API for testing with curl commands
SSE transport (run_sse.py) - Server-Sent Events for web clients (requires MCP-compatible web client)

Docker Support

Building the Docker Image

# Build the Docker image docker build -t hello-mcp .

Running with Docker

# Run HTTP transport (default) - for curl testing docker run -p 8000:8000 hello-mcp # Run stdio transport (for MCP clients) docker run -it hello-mcp python run_stdio.py # Run SSE transport (for web clients) docker run -p 8000:8000 hello-mcp python run_sse.py # Run direct testing docker run hello-mcp python test_server.py

Testing the Dockerized Server

Once running the HTTP transport container:

# Test the API curl http://localhost:8000/tools # Call a tool curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/tools/call \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"name": "say_hello", "arguments": {"name": "Docker"}}'

Development with Docker

# Mount source code for development docker run -p 8000:8000 -v $(pwd):/app hello-mcp # Interactive shell for debugging docker run -it hello-mcp /bin/bash