MCP Starter Server

A minimal ModelContextProtocol server template for building AI assistant tools. This starter provides a basic structure for creating MCP tools that can be used with AI assistants like Claude.

Features

Simple "hello world" tool example
TypeScript + esbuild setup
Development tools preconfigured

Setup with Claude

Download and install Claude desktop app from claude.ai/download
Configure Claude to use this MCP server. If this is your first MCP server, run:

echo '{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-starter": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-starter"]
    }
  }
}' > ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

If you have existing MCP servers, add the mcp-starter block to your existing config.

Restart Claude Desktop.
Look for the hammer icon with the number of available tools in Claude's interface to confirm the server is running.

Development Setup

Running with Inspector

For development and debugging purposes, you can use the MCP Inspector tool. The Inspector provides a visual interface for testing and monitoring MCP server interactions.

Visit the Inspector documentation for detailed setup instructions.

To test locally with Inspector:

npm run inspect

Or run both the watcher and inspector:

npm run dev

Local Development

Clone the repository
Install dependencies:

npm install

Build the project:

npm run build

For development with auto-rebuilding:

npm run watch

Available Tools

The server provides:

hello_tool: A simple example tool that takes a name parameter and returns a greeting

Creating New Tools

To add new tools:

Define the tool schema in index.ts
Add it to the tools array in the ListToolsRequestSchema handler
Add the implementation in the CallToolRequestSchema handler

See the hello_tool implementation as an example.