Day 1 — Claude Code Mastery & Context Engineering Lab

This repository implements a custom Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for project task management and integrates it with Claude Code.

What This Project Demonstrates

• A custom MCP server built in TypeScript

• SQLite persistence

• Three MCP tools:

  • create_task

  • list_tasks

  • update_task

• Claude Code integration through .mcp.json

• A structured CLAUDE.md

• Project-scoped Claude Code permissions

• Two custom Claude commands

• A PostToolUse hook that typechecks TypeScript changes

• An end-to-end Claude Code -> MCP -> SQLite workflow

Related MCP server: Mini Task MCP Server

Architecture

Claude Code
    |
    | stdio / MCP
    v
src/index.ts
    |
    v
src/server.ts
    |
    v
src/db.ts
    |
    v
SQLite (tasks.db)

Project Structure

.
├── .claude/
│   ├── commands/
│   │   ├── task-summary.md
│   │   └── verify-project.md
│   ├── hooks/
│   │   └── typecheck-on-ts-edit.sh
│   └── settings.json
├── .mcp.json
├── CLAUDE.md
├── README.md
├── src/
│   ├── db.ts
│   ├── index.ts
│   └── server.ts
├── package.json
└── tsconfig.json

MCP Tools

create_task

Creates a task.

Inputs:

• title: string, required

• description: string, optional

• priority: low | medium | high | critical

list_tasks

Lists tasks with optional filters.

Inputs:

• status: todo | in_progress | done

• priority: low | medium | high | critical

update_task

Updates the status of an existing task.

Inputs:

• id: positive integer

• status: todo | in_progress | done

SQLite Schema

Tasks contain:

• id

• title

• description

• priority

• status

• created_at

• updated_at

The database file is tasks.db and is intentionally ignored by Git.

Setup

Install dependencies:

npm install

Typecheck:

npm run typecheck

Build:

npm run build

Start the MCP server directly:

npm run dev

The process will wait for MCP messages over stdio.

Claude Code Integration

The project registers the MCP server in .mcp.json.

Verify it with:

claude mcp list

Then start Claude Code from the repository root:

claude

Claude Code should discover the project-manager MCP server.

End-to-End Workflow

Example prompts used to verify the MCP integration:

Create a task called "Set up CI/CD pipeline" with high priority

List all tasks

Update task 2 to in_progress

Show me all high priority tasks that are still todo

These prompts exercise the full flow:

Claude Code
-> project-manager MCP
-> MCP tool handler
-> SQLite
-> MCP result
-> Claude Code

Context Engineering

CLAUDE.md

CLAUDE.md documents:

• project purpose

• architecture

• development commands

• MCP tool contracts

• database safety

• code-change workflow

• completion criteria

It is intentionally concise and structured rather than a large unorganized prompt.

Custom Commands

Two project commands are included.

/task-summary

Uses the MCP tools to summarize the current task database.

/verify-project

Checks:

• TypeScript typechecking

• project build

• MCP configuration

• exact MCP tool contract

• Git ignore rules

PostToolUse Hook

.claude/hooks/typecheck-on-ts-edit.sh

The hook runs after Claude edits or writes TypeScript files under src/.

It automatically executes:

npm run typecheck

A successful typecheck exits normally. A failure returns the typecheck output to Claude.

Grading Criteria Mapping

Criterion 1 — Custom MCP Server + Workflow

Implemented by:

• src/server.ts

• src/db.ts

• src/index.ts

• .mcp.json

Verified through an end-to-end create/list/update workflow in Claude Code.

Criterion 2 — Context Engineering Configuration

Implemented by:

• CLAUDE.md

• .claude/settings.json

• .claude/commands/task-summary.md

• .claude/commands/verify-project.md

• .claude/hooks/typecheck-on-ts-edit.sh

The configuration was tested directly inside Claude Code.

Verification

Run:

npm run typecheck
npm run build
claude mcp list
git status

Expected result:

• typecheck passes

• build passes

• project-manager is connected

• Git working tree is clean