Movie Booking Assistant

A demo movie booking system for Bangalore cinemas, built to showcase two ways of integrating AI with a Python backend:

1. Gemini chat — a terminal chatbot powered by Google Gemini with function calling

2. MCP server — exposes the same APIs as tools for MCP-compatible AI clients (e.g. Claude)

Project Structure

demo1/
├── api_v1.py       # Movies & Showtimes API
├── api_v2.py       # Bookings API
├── api_v3.py       # Theatres & Seats API
├── chat.py         # Gemini AI terminal chatbot
└── mcp_server.py   # MCP server (for Claude / other MCP clients)

API Files

All data is hardcoded in-memory — no database required.

How It Works

Gemini Chat (chat.py)

You type a message
  → Sent to Gemini API
    → Gemini picks a tool to call (based on function docstrings)
      → Your code runs the function locally
        → Result sent back to Gemini
          → Gemini replies in plain English

Gemini never runs your code directly. It reads the function name, parameters, and docstring to decide what to call — your code executes it and reports back.

MCP Server (mcp_server.py)

FastMCP automatically converts each FastAPI app into MCP tools, namespaced as movies_*, bookings_*, and theatres_*. An MCP-compatible client (like Claude Code) connects to the server and calls tools the same way Gemini does — but over the MCP protocol instead.

Setup

1. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Set your Gemini API key

Create a .env file in the project root:

GEMINI_API_KEY=your_key_here

Get a key at aistudio.google.com.

Usage

Run the Gemini chatbot

python chat.py

Example interaction:

You: What sci-fi movies are showing today?
  [calling tool: search_movies with {'genre': 'Sci-Fi'}]

Gemini: There are two sci-fi movies showing today — Inception and The Matrix...

You: Book 2 tickets for Inception at PVR Orion Mall
  [calling tool: get_showtimes with {'movie_id': 'MOVIE-003'}]
  [calling tool: book_tickets with {'showtime_id': 'SHOW-001', 'seats': 2, 'user_name': 'Joshua'}]

Gemini: Done! I've booked 2 tickets for Inception...

Type quit or exit to stop.

Run the MCP server

python mcp_server.py

Then connect any MCP-compatible client to it. For Claude Code, add it to your MCP settings pointing to this script.

Data Overview

• 10 movies — including Inception, The Matrix, Oppenheimer, and more

• 10 theatres — across Bangalore (PVR, INOX, Cinepolis)

• 15 showtimes — across 2 days, with 2D and IMAX options

• 3 pre-existing bookings — for user "Joshua"