MCP TypeScript SDK

Overview

The Model Context Protocol allows applications to provide context for LLMs in a standardized way, separating the concerns of providing context from the actual LLM interaction. This TypeScript SDK implements the full MCP specification, making it easy to:

Build MCP clients that can connect to any MCP server
Create MCP servers that expose resources, prompts and tools
Use standard transports like stdio and Streamable HTTP
Handle all MCP protocol messages and lifecycle events

Installation

npm install @modelcontextprotocol/sdk

Quick Start

Let's create a simple MCP server that exposes a calculator tool and some data:

import { McpServer, ResourceTemplate } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/mcp.js";
import { StdioServerTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/stdio.js";
import { z } from "zod";

// Create an MCP server
const server = new McpServer({
  name: "Demo",
  version: "1.0.0"
});

// Add an addition tool
server.tool("add",
  { a: z.number(), b: z.number() },
  async ({ a, b }) => ({
    content: [{ type: "text", text: String(a + b) }]
  })
);

// Add a dynamic greeting resource
server.resource(
  "greeting",
  new ResourceTemplate("greeting://{name}", { list: undefined }),
  async (uri, { name }) => ({
    contents: [{
      uri: uri.href,
      text: `Hello, ${name}!`
    }]
  })
);

// Start receiving messages on stdin and sending messages on stdout
const transport = new StdioServerTransport();
await server.connect(transport);

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) lets you build servers that expose data and functionality to LLM applications in a secure, standardized way. Think of it like a web API, but specifically designed for LLM interactions. MCP servers can:

Expose data through Resources (think of these sort of like GET endpoints; they are used to load information into the LLM's context)
Provide functionality through Tools (sort of like POST endpoints; they are used to execute code or otherwise produce a side effect)
Define interaction patterns through Prompts (reusable templates for LLM interactions)
And more!

Core Concepts

Server

The McpServer is your core interface to the MCP protocol. It handles connection management, protocol compliance, and message routing:

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

Resources

Resources are how you expose data to LLMs. They're similar to GET endpoints in a REST API - they provide data but shouldn't perform significant computation or have side effects:

// Static resource
server.resource(
  "config",
  "config://app",
  async (uri) => ({
    contents: [{
      uri: uri.href,
      text: "App configuration here"
    }]
  })
);

// Dynamic resource with parameters
server.resource(
  "user-profile",
  new ResourceTemplate("users://{userId}/profile", { list: undefined }),
  async (uri, { userId }) => ({
    contents: [{
      uri: uri.href,
      text: `Profile data for user ${userId}`
    }]
  })
);

Tools

Tools let LLMs take actions through your server. Unlike resources, tools are expected to perform computation and have side effects:

// Simple tool with parameters
server.tool(
  "calculate-bmi",
  {
    weightKg: z.number(),
    heightM: z.number()
  },
  async ({ weightKg, heightM }) => ({
    content: [{
      type: "text",
      text: String(weightKg / (heightM * heightM))
    }]
  })
);

// Async tool with external API call
server.tool(
  "fetch-weather",
  { city: z.string() },
  async ({ city }) => {
    const response = await fetch(`https://api.weather.com/${city}`);
    const data = await response.text();
    return {
      content: [{ type: "text", text: data }]
    };
  }
);

Prompts

Prompts are reusable templates that help LLMs interact with your server effectively:

server.prompt(
  "review-code",
  { code: z.string() },
  ({ code }) => ({
    messages: [{
      role: "user",
      content: {
        type: "text",
        text: `Please review this code:\n\n${code}`
      }
    }]
  })
);

Running Your Server

MCP servers in TypeScript need to be connected to a transport to communicate with clients. How you start the server depends on the choice of transport:

stdio

For command-line tools and direct integrations:

import { McpServer } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/mcp.js";
import { StdioServerTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/stdio.js";

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

// ... set up server resources, tools, and prompts ...

const transport = new StdioServerTransport();
await server.connect(transport);

Streamable HTTP

For remote servers, set up a Streamable HTTP transport that handles both client requests and server-to-client notifications.

With Session Management

In some cases, servers need to be stateful. This is achieved by session management.

import express from "express";
import { randomUUID } from "node:crypto";
import { McpServer } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/mcp.js";
import { StreamableHTTPServerTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/streamableHttp.js";
import { isInitializeRequest } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/types.js"



const app = express();
app.use(express.json());

// Map to store transports by session ID
const transports: { [sessionId: string]: StreamableHTTPServerTransport } = {};

// Handle POST requests for client-to-server communication
app.post('/mcp', async (req, res) => {
  // Check for existing session ID
  const sessionId = req.headers['mcp-session-id'] as string | undefined;
  let transport: StreamableHTTPServerTransport;

  if (sessionId && transports[sessionId]) {
    // Reuse existing transport
    transport = transports[sessionId];
  } else if (!sessionId && isInitializeRequest(req.body)) {
    // New initialization request
    transport = new StreamableHTTPServerTransport({
      sessionIdGenerator: () => randomUUID(),
      onsessioninitialized: (sessionId) => {
        // Store the transport by session ID
        transports[sessionId] = transport;
      }
    });

    // Clean up transport when closed
    transport.onclose = () => {
      if (transport.sessionId) {
        delete transports[transport.sessionId];
      }
    };
    const server = new McpServer({
      name: "example-server",
      version: "1.0.0"
    });

    // ... set up server resources, tools, and prompts ...

    // Connect to the MCP server
    await server.connect(transport);
  } else {
    // Invalid request
    res.status(400).json({
      jsonrpc: '2.0',
      error: {
        code: -32000,
        message: 'Bad Request: No valid session ID provided',
      },
      id: null,
    });
    return;
  }

  // Handle the request
  await transport.handleRequest(req, res, req.body);
});

// Reusable handler for GET and DELETE requests
const handleSessionRequest = async (req: express.Request, res: express.Response) => {
  const sessionId = req.headers['mcp-session-id'] as string | undefined;
  if (!sessionId || !transports[sessionId]) {
    res.status(400).send('Invalid or missing session ID');
    return;
  }
  
  const transport = transports[sessionId];
  await transport.handleRequest(req, res);
};

// Handle GET requests for server-to-client notifications via SSE
app.get('/mcp', handleSessionRequest);

// Handle DELETE requests for session termination
app.delete('/mcp', handleSessionRequest);

app.listen(3000);

Without Session Management (Stateless)

For simpler use cases where session management isn't needed:

const app = express();
app.use(express.json());

app.post('/mcp', async (req: Request, res: Response) => {
  // In stateless mode, create a new instance of transport and server for each request
  // to ensure complete isolation. A single instance would cause request ID collisions
  // when multiple clients connect concurrently.
  
  try {
    const server = getServer(); 
    const transport: StreamableHTTPServerTransport = new StreamableHTTPServerTransport({
      sessionIdGenerator: undefined,
    });
    res.on('close', () => {
      console.log('Request closed');
      transport.close();
      server.close();
    });
    await server.connect(transport);
    await transport.handleRequest(req, res, req.body);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error handling MCP request:', error);
    if (!res.headersSent) {
      res.status(500).json({
        jsonrpc: '2.0',
        error: {
          code: -32603,
          message: 'Internal server error',
        },
        id: null,
      });
    }
  }
});

app.get('/mcp', async (req: Request, res: Response) => {
  console.log('Received GET MCP request');
  res.writeHead(405).end(JSON.stringify({
    jsonrpc: "2.0",
    error: {
      code: -32000,
      message: "Method not allowed."
    },
    id: null
  }));
});

app.delete('/mcp', async (req: Request, res: Response) => {
  console.log('Received DELETE MCP request');
  res.writeHead(405).end(JSON.stringify({
    jsonrpc: "2.0",
    error: {
      code: -32000,
      message: "Method not allowed."
    },
    id: null
  }));
});


// Start the server
const PORT = 3000;
app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`MCP Stateless Streamable HTTP Server listening on port ${PORT}`);
});

This stateless approach is useful for:

Simple API wrappers
RESTful scenarios where each request is independent
Horizontally scaled deployments without shared session state

Testing and Debugging

To test your server, you can use the MCP Inspector. See its README for more information.

Examples

Echo Server

A simple server demonstrating resources, tools, and prompts:

import { McpServer, ResourceTemplate } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/mcp.js";
import { z } from "zod";

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

server.resource(
  "echo",
  new ResourceTemplate("echo://{message}", { list: undefined }),
  async (uri, { message }) => ({
    contents: [{
      uri: uri.href,
      text: `Resource echo: ${message}`
    }]
  })
);

server.tool(
  "echo",
  { message: z.string() },
  async ({ message }) => ({
    content: [{ type: "text", text: `Tool echo: ${message}` }]
  })
);

server.prompt(
  "echo",
  { message: z.string() },
  ({ message }) => ({
    messages: [{
      role: "user",
      content: {
        type: "text",
        text: `Please process this message: ${message}`
      }
    }]
  })
);

SQLite Explorer

A more complex example showing database integration:

import { McpServer } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/mcp.js";
import sqlite3 from "sqlite3";
import { promisify } from "util";
import { z } from "zod";

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

// Helper to create DB connection
const getDb = () => {
  const db = new sqlite3.Database("database.db");
  return {
    all: promisify<string, any[]>(db.all.bind(db)),
    close: promisify(db.close.bind(db))
  };
};

server.resource(
  "schema",
  "schema://main",
  async (uri) => {
    const db = getDb();
    try {
      const tables = await db.all(
        "SELECT sql FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table'"
      );
      return {
        contents: [{
          uri: uri.href,
          text: tables.map((t: {sql: string}) => t.sql).join("\n")
        }]
      };
    } finally {
      await db.close();
    }
  }
);

server.tool(
  "query",
  { sql: z.string() },
  async ({ sql }) => {
    const db = getDb();
    try {
      const results = await db.all(sql);
      return {
        content: [{
          type: "text",
          text: JSON.stringify(results, null, 2)
        }]
      };
    } catch (err: unknown) {
      const error = err as Error;
      return {
        content: [{
          type: "text",
          text: `Error: ${error.message}`
        }],
        isError: true
      };
    } finally {
      await db.close();
    }
  }
);

Advanced Usage

Dynamic Servers

If you want to offer an initial set of tools/prompts/resources, but later add additional ones based on user action or external state change, you can add/update/remove them after the Server is connected. This will automatically emit the corresponding listChanged notifications:

import { McpServer } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/mcp.js";
import { z } from "zod";

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

const listMessageTool = server.tool(
  "listMessages",
  { channel: z.string() },
  async ({ channel }) => ({
    content: [{ type: "text", text: await listMessages(channel) }]
  })
);

const putMessageTool = server.tool(
  "putMessage",
  { channel: z.string(), message: z.string() },
  async ({ channel, message }) => ({
    content: [{ type: "text", text: await putMessage(channel, string) }]
  })
);
// Until we upgrade auth, `putMessage` is disabled (won't show up in listTools)
putMessageTool.disable()

const upgradeAuthTool = server.tool(
  "upgradeAuth",
  { permission: z.enum(["write', admin"])},
  // Any mutations here will automatically emit `listChanged` notifications
  async ({ permission }) => {
    const { ok, err, previous } = await upgradeAuthAndStoreToken(permission)
    if (!ok) return {content: [{ type: "text", text: `Error: ${err}` }]}

    // If we previously had read-only access, 'putMessage' is now available
    if (previous === "read") {
      putMessageTool.enable()
    }

    if (permission === 'write') {
      // If we've just upgraded to 'write' permissions, we can still call 'upgradeAuth' 
      // but can only upgrade to 'admin'. 
      upgradeAuthTool.update({
        paramSchema: { permission: z.enum(["admin"]) }, // change validation rules
      })
    } else {
      // If we're now an admin, we no longer have anywhere to upgrade to, so fully remove that tool
      upgradeAuthTool.remove()
    }
  }
)

// Connect as normal
const transport = new StdioServerTransport();
await server.connect(transport);

Low-Level Server

For more control, you can use the low-level Server class directly:

import { Server } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/index.js";
import { StdioServerTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/stdio.js";
import {
  ListPromptsRequestSchema,
  GetPromptRequestSchema
} from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/types.js";

const server = new Server(
  {
    name: "example-server",
    version: "1.0.0"
  },
  {
    capabilities: {
      prompts: {}
    }
  }
);

server.setRequestHandler(ListPromptsRequestSchema, async () => {
  return {
    prompts: [{
      name: "example-prompt",
      description: "An example prompt template",
      arguments: [{
        name: "arg1",
        description: "Example argument",
        required: true
      }]
    }]
  };
});

server.setRequestHandler(GetPromptRequestSchema, async (request) => {
  if (request.params.name !== "example-prompt") {
    throw new Error("Unknown prompt");
  }
  return {
    description: "Example prompt",
    messages: [{
      role: "user",
      content: {
        type: "text",
        text: "Example prompt text"
      }
    }]
  };
});

const transport = new StdioServerTransport();
await server.connect(transport);

Writing MCP Clients

The SDK provides a high-level client interface:

import { Client } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/client/index.js";
import { StdioClientTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/client/stdio.js";

const transport = new StdioClientTransport({
  command: "node",
  args: ["server.js"]
});

const client = new Client(
  {
    name: "example-client",
    version: "1.0.0"
  }
);

await client.connect(transport);

// List prompts
const prompts = await client.listPrompts();

// Get a prompt
const prompt = await client.getPrompt({
  name: "example-prompt",
  arguments: {
    arg1: "value"
  }
});

// List resources
const resources = await client.listResources();

// Read a resource
const resource = await client.readResource({
  uri: "file:///example.txt"
});

// Call a tool
const result = await client.callTool({
  name: "example-tool",
  arguments: {
    arg1: "value"
  }
});

Proxy Authorization Requests Upstream

You can proxy OAuth requests to an external authorization provider:

import express from 'express';
import { ProxyOAuthServerProvider } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/auth/providers/proxyProvider.js';
import { mcpAuthRouter } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/auth/router.js';

const app = express();

const proxyProvider = new ProxyOAuthServerProvider({
    endpoints: {
        authorizationUrl: "https://auth.external.com/oauth2/v1/authorize",
        tokenUrl: "https://auth.external.com/oauth2/v1/token",
        revocationUrl: "https://auth.external.com/oauth2/v1/revoke",
    },
    verifyAccessToken: async (token) => {
        return {
            token,
            clientId: "123",
            scopes: ["openid", "email", "profile"],
        }
    },
    getClient: async (client_id) => {
        return {
            client_id,
            redirect_uris: ["http://localhost:3000/callback"],
        }
    }
})

app.use(mcpAuthRouter({
    provider: proxyProvider,
    issuerUrl: new URL("http://auth.external.com"),
    baseUrl: new URL("http://mcp.example.com"),
    serviceDocumentationUrl: new URL("https://docs.example.com/"),
}))

This setup allows you to:

Forward OAuth requests to an external provider
Add custom token validation logic
Manage client registrations
Provide custom documentation URLs
Maintain control over the OAuth flow while delegating to an external provider

Backwards Compatibility

Clients and servers with StreamableHttp tranport can maintain backwards compatibility with the deprecated HTTP+SSE transport (from protocol version 2024-11-05) as follows

Client-Side Compatibility

For clients that need to work with both Streamable HTTP and older SSE servers:

import { Client } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/client/index.js";
import { StreamableHTTPClientTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/client/streamableHttp.js";
import { SSEClientTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/client/sse.js";
let client: Client|undefined = undefined
const baseUrl = new URL(url);
try {
  client = new Client({
    name: 'streamable-http-client',
    version: '1.0.0'
  });
  const transport = new StreamableHTTPClientTransport(
    new URL(baseUrl)
  );
  await client.connect(transport);
  console.log("Connected using Streamable HTTP transport");
} catch (error) {
  // If that fails with a 4xx error, try the older SSE transport
  console.log("Streamable HTTP connection failed, falling back to SSE transport");
  client = new Client({
    name: 'sse-client',
    version: '1.0.0'
  });
  const sseTransport = new SSEClientTransport(baseUrl);
  await client.connect(sseTransport);
  console.log("Connected using SSE transport");
}

Server-Side Compatibility

For servers that need to support both Streamable HTTP and older clients:

import express from "express";
import { McpServer } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/mcp.js";
import { StreamableHTTPServerTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/streamableHttp.js";
import { SSEServerTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/sse.js";

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

// ... set up server resources, tools, and prompts ...

const app = express();
app.use(express.json());

// Store transports for each session type
const transports = {
  streamable: {} as Record<string, StreamableHTTPServerTransport>,
  sse: {} as Record<string, SSEServerTransport>
};

// Modern Streamable HTTP endpoint
app.all('/mcp', async (req, res) => {
  // Handle Streamable HTTP transport for modern clients
  // Implementation as shown in the "With Session Management" example
  // ...
});

// Legacy SSE endpoint for older clients
app.get('/sse', async (req, res) => {
  // Create SSE transport for legacy clients
  const transport = new SSEServerTransport('/messages', res);
  transports.sse[transport.sessionId] = transport;
  
  res.on("close", () => {
    delete transports.sse[transport.sessionId];
  });
  
  await server.connect(transport);
});

// Legacy message endpoint for older clients
app.post('/messages', async (req, res) => {
  const sessionId = req.query.sessionId as string;
  const transport = transports.sse[sessionId];
  if (transport) {
    await transport.handlePostMessage(req, res, req.body);
  } else {
    res.status(400).send('No transport found for sessionId');
  }
});

app.listen(3000);

Note: The SSE transport is now deprecated in favor of Streamable HTTP. New implementations should use Streamable HTTP, and existing SSE implementations should plan to migrate.

Documentation

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/typescript-sdk.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License—see the LICENSE file for details.

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.github/workflows		.github/workflows
src		src
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
.npmrc		.npmrc
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md		CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
SECURITY.md		SECURITY.md
eslint.config.mjs		eslint.config.mjs
jest.config.js		jest.config.js
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
tsconfig.cjs.json		tsconfig.cjs.json
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json
tsconfig.prod.json		tsconfig.prod.json

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MCP TypeScript SDK

Table of Contents

Overview

Installation

Quick Start

What is MCP?

Core Concepts

Server

Resources

Tools

Prompts

Running Your Server

stdio

Streamable HTTP

With Session Management

Without Session Management (Stateless)

Testing and Debugging

Examples

Echo Server

SQLite Explorer

Advanced Usage

Dynamic Servers

Low-Level Server

Writing MCP Clients

Proxy Authorization Requests Upstream

Backwards Compatibility

Client-Side Compatibility

Server-Side Compatibility

Documentation

Contributing

License

About

Resources

License

Code of conduct

Security policy

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