MCP Server Integration — Build Exercise

Scaffold for the CCA-F prep exercise from 2.4 MCP Server Integration. Nothing here is solved — every task below has a TODO for you to fill in.

Task checklist

• 1. Project-level config — .mcp.json has a github server entry (command/args). Swap it for whichever community server you want, if not GitHub.

• 2. Env var expansion — the github entry references ${GITHUB_TOKEN} instead of a hardcoded credential. Copy .env.example to .env and fill in a real token.

• 3. User-level config — not created here on purpose, since ~/.claude.json lives outside the project and is personal to your machine. Template and steps: docs/user-level-config.md.

• 4. Expose an MCP resource — src/server.ts has a stub catalogue://TODO resource. Replace it with a real content catalogue (e.g. a DB schema or docs hierarchy) with a proper URI, name, description, and mimeType.

• 5. Enhance tool descriptions — same file, example_tool has a placeholder description. Write 3-5 sentences covering capability, output, use case, and how it compares to a built-in alternative.

Related MCP server: MCP Inspector Server

Setup

npm install
npm run dev        # starts the stdio server directly
npm run inspect     # opens MCP Inspector against the server for manual testing

Layout

.mcp.json                   Task 1 & 2 — project-level server config
.env.example                Task 2 — template for the secret .mcp.json expands
docs/user-level-config.md   Task 3 — template + steps for ~/.claude.json
src/server.ts                Task 4 & 5 — custom MCP server with resource/tool stubs