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MCP Config & Server Scaffolds

Intermediate

Copy-paste starters for connecting Claude to tools via MCP. Trim to what you need.

.mcp.json — declare servers (project-shared)​

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"],
      "env": { "GITHUB_TOKEN": "${GITHUB_TOKEN}" }
    },
    "postgres": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres", "${DATABASE_URL}"]
    }
  }
}

:::warning Keep secrets out of the file Reference env vars (${GITHUB_TOKEN}) — don't hard-code tokens in a committed file. :::

Minimal stdio server (TypeScript)​

A tiny server exposing one tool. Adapt the handler to your data.

import { McpServer } from "@modelcontextprotocol/server";
import { StdioServerTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/server/stdio";
import { z } from "zod";

const server = new McpServer({ name: "echo", version: "1.0.0" });

server.registerTool(
  "echo",
  {
    description: "Echo back the provided text",
    inputSchema: z.object({ text: z.string().describe("Text to echo back") }),
  },
  async ({ text }) => ({ content: [{ type: "text", text: `You said: ${text}` }] }),
);

await server.connect(new StdioServerTransport());

:::note SDK package rename (MCP TS SDK v2) @modelcontextprotocol/sdk was split into @modelcontextprotocol/server and @modelcontextprotocol/client in v2. The v1 package still receives bug fixes; new projects should use v2. :::

Minimal stdio server (Python)​

from mcp.server import MCPServer

mcp = MCPServer("echo")

@mcp.tool()
def echo(text: str) -> str:
    """Echo the text back."""
    return f"You said: {text}"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    mcp.run(transport="stdio")

Before you ship a server​

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