MCP Tutorial – Build Your First MCP Server

This tutorial walks you through building your first MCP server, covering the core concepts and implementation patterns you need to know.

Prerequisites

Before we start, ensure you have Node.js 18+ or Python 3.10+ installed, and basic familiarity with TypeScript or Python syntax.

The Three Building Blocks

Before writing code, it helps to know what an MCP server actually exposes. There are three primitives: Tools, Resources, and Prompts.

Part 1: TypeScript Server

Step 1: Set Up Your Project - Create a new directory and initialize a Node.js project.

mkdir my-mcp-server
cd my-mcp-server
npm init -y
npm install @modelcontextprotocol/sdk

Part 2: Python Server

If you prefer Python, the official SDK uses a decorator-based API.

from mcp.server.fastmcp import FastMCP

mcp = FastMCP("my-server")

@mcp.tool()
def greet(name: str) -> str:
    return "Hello, " + name + "!"

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

Next Steps

From here, explore adding resources, prompts, and more complex tool implementations.