MCP Chat

MCP Chat is a command-line interface application that enables interactive chat capabilities with AI models through the Anthropic API. The application supports document retrieval, command-based prompts, and extensible tool integrations via the MCP (Model Context Protocol) architecture.

See ARCHITECTURE.md for diagrams of how main.py, mcp_client.py, mcp_server.py, and the core/ modules fit together.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+

• Anthropic API Key

Related MCP server: MCP Chat

Setup

Step 1: Configure the environment variables

1. Copy .env.example to .env in the project root and fill in the values:

cp .env.example .env

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=""              # Your Anthropic API secret key
CLAUDE_MODEL="claude-sonnet-4-5"  # Model id to chat with
USE_UV=1                          # 1 to launch the MCP server via uv, 0 for plain python

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and CLAUDE_MODEL are both required — the app exits at startup if either is empty.

Step 2: Install dependencies

Option 1: Setup with uv (Recommended)

uv is a fast Python package installer and resolver.

1. Install uv, if not already installed:

pip install uv

2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies:

uv pip install -e .

4. Run the project

uv run main.py

Option 2: Setup without uv

1. Create and activate a virtual environment:

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

2. Install dependencies:

pip install anthropic python-dotenv prompt-toolkit "mcp[cli]==1.8.0"

3. Run the project

python main.py

Usage

Basic Interaction

Simply type your message and press Enter to chat with the model.

Document Retrieval

Use the @ symbol followed by a document ID to include document content in your query:

> Tell me about @deposition.md

Commands

Use the / prefix to execute prompts defined in the MCP server. Each command takes a document id:

> /format deposition.md

Commands will auto-complete when you press Tab. mcp_server.py currently defines one prompt, format.

Development

Adding New Documents

Edit the mcp_server.py file to add new documents to the docs dictionary.

Adding New MCP Servers

Pass additional server scripts as arguments; each is launched as its own MCP client and its tools are merged into the tool set offered to the model:

uv run main.py path/to/other_server.py

Linting and Typing Check

There are no lint or type checks wired into CI. To lint locally:

uvx ruff check .