mcp-starter

A production-grade Model Context Protocol (MCP) server in TypeScript: tools, resources, prompts, and integration tests, built on @modelcontextprotocol/sdk 1.30.x.

MCP is the open protocol that lets AI agents call into your tools the same way browsers call HTTP APIs. This starter is the smallest complete implementation you can fork into production: typed tool schemas, clean error surfaces, in-memory transports for testing, and no magic.

Quickstart

npm install
npm run build        # tsc -> dist/
npm test             # integration tests over in-memory transport
npm start            # run the stdio server (node dist/cli.js)
npm run dev          # watch mode (tsx watch src/cli.ts)

Talk to it from any MCP client, for example Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-starter": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-starter/dist/cli.js"]
    }
  }
}

Related MCP server: TypeScript MCP Server Boilerplate

What is inside

Architecture

src/cli.ts              stdio bootstrap (the bin entry)
src/index.ts            createServer() factory (the library)
src/tools/              one file per tool family, register(server) pattern
src/resources/          read-only context providers
tests/server.test.ts    real Client <-> Server over InMemoryTransport

The register(server) pattern keeps every capability isolated. Add a tool by dropping one file in src/tools/ and wiring it in index.ts.

Extending

1. Add src/tools/my-tool.ts exporting registerMyTool(server).

2. Call it from createServer().

3. Add a test in tests/; the in-memory transport makes integration tests trivial, with no subprocess and no ports.

Real-world swaps: back the KV store with Redis, mount a Postgres resource, add a domain tool backed by your own API.

Keeping docs current

The MCP spec moves fast. Pull live docs into your coding context with Context7: npx ctx7 docs @modelcontextprotocol/sdk (or the Context7 MCP server). The canonical references are the modelcontextprotocol org on GitHub and the official SDK types.

License

MIT