Evening Briefing — an Alexa+ MCP server

One self-hosted MCP server that turns any MCP-capable assistant into an evening companion: "Alexa, how's it looking outside, who won, and what's on tonight?" Three voice-first tools, zero API keys, zero accounts — clone, npm install, npm start.

Built for the Build, Ship, Shape: Amazon Developer Hackathon — Alexa+ track (self-hosted MCP server, Streamable HTTP, official @modelcontextprotocol/sdk).

Run it

npm install
npm start          # → http://localhost:8787

• Playground (simulated Alexa+ experience): open http://localhost:8787 — three cards, real MCP calls over POST /mcp.

• Any MCP client (Claude Code, Inspector, …):

claude mcp add evening-briefing --transport http http://localhost:8787/mcp
# or: npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector

npm test           # boots the server, connects a real MCP client, calls all three tools

Related MCP server: Multi-MCPs

Tools

Every tool returns a speakable one-line summary (content) plus structured data (structuredContent) — designed for voice output first, screen second.

Architecture

• src/server.ts — MCP server over Streamable HTTP (stateless mode), also serves the playground. Plain node:http, no web framework.

• src/tools.ts — the three tools; small, cache-free, timeout-guarded fetch wrappers.

• public/ — vanilla-JS playground that speaks raw JSON-RPC to /mcp (initialize → tools/list → tools/call).

• test/smoke.ts — integration test: official MCP client, ephemeral port, live tool calls.

Product feedback (hackathon requirement)

• What we built on: the Alexa+ MCP story is the strongest part of the stack — pointing a self-hosted server at a living-room assistant is a genuinely novel distribution channel, and Streamable HTTP made it a one-afternoon integration with the official SDK.

• Friction: discovery of which spec version / transport a given assistant firmware accepts is opaque; a public "skill ↔ MCP endpoint" debugging console (like the Inspector, but assistant-side) would save every participant a day.

• Request: per-tool OAuth scopes and a revocation UI. Home data is intimate; trust tooling will matter more than tool count for adoption.

• Most-wanted next tools: calendar read access and Echo device presence — the briefing becomes truly personal once the assistant knows who's home.

Track fit & scope

• Track: Alexa+ (self-hosted MCP server path). No Amazon hardware or account needed to run or judge this.

• Stretch (not required): the same tools deploy unchanged behind Bedrock AgentCore for the AWS Builder mini-challenge — kept out of scope here to stay keyless and instantly runnable.

• License: MIT.