MCP Server Development Guide

Create MCP servers that enable LLMs to interact with external services. Quality is measured by how well the server enables LLMs to accomplish real-world tasks.

Phase 1: Research and Planning

1.1 Design Principles

• API coverage vs. workflow tools: prioritize comprehensive API endpoint coverage; add workflow tools for common multi-step operations. When uncertain, prefer coverage.
• Tool naming: use consistent prefixes and action-oriented names (e.g., github_create_issue, github_list_repos)
• Context management: return focused, relevant data; support filtering and pagination
• Error messages: include specific suggestions and next steps to guide the agent toward solutions

1.2 Study MCP Protocol

Start with the sitemap: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/sitemap.xml Fetch pages with .md suffix for markdown (e.g., https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/draft.md).

Key areas: specification overview, transport mechanisms (streamable HTTP, stdio), tool/resource/prompt definitions.