Model Context Protocol (MCP)

!Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Image Source: https://www.danvega.dev/images/blog/2025/03/11/what_is_mcp.jpeg

Core MCP Concepts

MCP servers can provide three main types of capabilities:
Resources: File-like data that can be read by clients (like API responses or file contents)
Tools: Functions that can be called by the LLM (with user approval)
Prompts: Pre-written templates that help users accomplish specific tasks

MCP: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/introduction
Python SDK: https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/python-sdk
Example Servers: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/examples
Clients: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/clients
Library: https://pypi.org/project/mcp/

Install

1. NodeJS: https://nodejs.org/en/download
2. Claude Desktop: https://claude.ai/download
3. UV: An extremely fast Python package and project manager, written in Rust. https://docs.astral.sh/uv/ & https://pypi.org/project/uv/
   3.1. pip install uv
   3.2. powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex" for Windows OS
   3.3- curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh for Linux Base OS

Configuration

Claude Desktop (for Windows)

Path: %APPDATA%/Claude/
Setting Path: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Logs Path: %APPDATA%/Claude/logs
Please browse to cfg/claude_desktop_config.json file

Cursor (for Windows)

Path: .cursor/
Ctrl + Shift + P
Open MCP Settings
Add new global MCP server
Please browse to cfg/mcp.json file

Windsurf (for Windows)

Path: .codeium/
Ctrl + Shift + P
Open MCP Settings
Add new global MCP server
Please browse to cfg/mcp_config.json file

Examples

https://smithery.ai/
https://smithery.ai/server/@wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander & https://desktopcommander.app/

References

Introducing the Model Context Protocol - https://www.anthropic.com/news/model-context-protocol
Model Context Protocol (MCP) - https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/agents-and-tools/mcp
MCP Specification - https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-03-26
Microsoft MCP for Beginner - https://github.com/microsoft/mcp-for-beginners
Model Context Protocol (MCP) an overview - https://www.philschmid.de/mcp-introduction
EP154: What is MCP? https://blog.bytebytego.com/p/ep154-what-is-mcp
EP165: AI Agent versus MCP - https://blog.bytebytego.com/p/ep165-ai-agent-versus-mcp
EP163: 12 MCP Servers You Can Use in 2025 - https://blog.bytebytego.com/p/ep163-12-mcp-servers-you-can-use