Roc MCP Testbed

You have a simple Roc MCP server that lets you expose tools over Standard Input/Output for testing and integration. It runs as a local process, takes JSON-RPC style messages, and returns results to you programmatically. This guide walks you through using that server with an MCP client, installing it, and common usage patterns to get tools like current_datetime up and running in your workflow.

How to use

You interact with the Roc MCP server by starting the server process and communicating with it through standard input and output. The server reads messages from stdin, writes responses to stdout, and logs additional information to stderr. Before you can call any tools, you must perform an initialization handshake so the server can enable tool calls.

Once the handshake is complete, you can request the list of available tools and then call a specific tool. In this setup, you have a local tool named local_datetime that you can invoke to obtain the current date and time.

How to install

Prerequisites: you need a running environment for your ROC MCP server as described in the source snippet below. Ensure you have a executable ROC binary and a path to the main ROC script you want to test.

Create an MCP server configuration for your MCP client by adding a server entry that points to your ROC executable and the ROC script you want to load.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "current_datetime": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/your/roc/",
      "args": [
        "/absolute/path/to/roc-mcp-testbed/src/main.roc"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Additional notes

Manual testing can be done by starting the ROC MCP server binary and directing messages to its standard input. Begin with an initialization message to establish the protocol version and capabilities, then send a handshake notification to finalize the setup. After that, you can request the list of tools and call local_datetime as needed.

Example tool you can call: local_datetime. The server responds with the tool output once the initialization handshake is confirmed and the tool call is made.

Available tools

local_datetime

A tool that returns the current date and time when invoked through the MCP server.