MCP Server Example

🚀 MCP Server Example

This project demonstrates a basic MCP (Model Context Protocol) server implemented using .NET. It provides endpoints for interacting with MCP clients and integrates testing and debugging tools, such as the MCP Inspector. Additionally, this example shows how to configure integration with external services (e.g., GitLab) through user secrets.

🚀 Quick Start

⚠️ Important Note

To run the GitLab tool (SearchGroupsAsync), follow the instructions here.

dotnet build
dotnet run

You will see output similar to the following:

Building...
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[14]
      Now listening on: http://localhost:5168
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
      Application started. Press Ctrl+C to shut down.
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
      Hosting environment: Development

Copy the HTTP URL as you'll need it when running the MCP Inspector.

💻 Usage Examples

Debugging and Testing

If you don't receive the expected response or want to test and interact with your MCP server outside the VSCode environment, you can use the MCP Inspector. This tool provides a user-friendly interface for testing and debugging your MCP server. Access the MCP Inspector source code here.

To install the inspector, enter the following command in the terminal:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector dotnet run

This will start the MCP Inspector. Then, click on the HTTP URL to access the inspector:

Starting MCP Inspector...
⚙️  Proxy server is listening on port 6277
🔍 MCP Inspector is running at http://127.0.0.1:6274 🚀
New SSE connection

Using the HTTP URL you copied earlier, select the "Transport Type" dropdown menu and set it to SSE. Then paste this content into the URL text box (add /sse at the end), and press the Connect button:

.

To view the available tools, press the List Tools button (located in the center of the UI). This will display:

Now it's your turn to experiment!

🔧 Technical Details

User Secrets

If the project is missing <UserSecretsId>, run this command to set up user secrets:

dotnet user-secrets init

GitLab PAT

dotnet user-secrets set "GitLab:Token" "<your_token_value>"

GitLab Domain

dotnet user-secrets set "GitLab:domain" "<your_domain_value>"