Starter

You are setting up an MCP Server Starter that lets you run local MCP tools with clients like Cursor and Claude using the MCP standard. It offers flexible transport options, quick setup, and TypeScript support to add type safety to your project.

How to use

Choose your transport method based on where you plan to run the server. Use stdio for local development and http for remote or remote/local usage. If you are testing locally, run the server and point your MCP client to the appropriate endpoint. You can inspect the server during development to debug issues.

To run locally with stdio, start your MCP server process and connect via the command line configuration you provide. To expose the server over HTTP, start the server with the HTTP flag and configure the client to point to the HTTP URL. You can also use a published package setup that runs via npx for quick experiments.

How to install

Prerequisites you need before starting are Node.js and an MCP-compatible client such as Cursor.

Set up your project directory and prepare to run the MCP server using one of the provided configurations.

# Local development / stdio (example)
# Create your project and install dependencies if needed
# Then run the server using stdio configuration shown below
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-starter-mcp-stdio": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["./bin/cli.mjs", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

# Published package / stdio example
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-starter-mcp-stdio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["my-mcp-server", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

# Local development / http (start server)
node ./bin/cli.mjs --http --port 4200

# Published package / http example
npx my-mcp-server --http --port 4200

Additional notes

You can inspect the server during development to debug issues using the provided inspect command or tooling. For HTTP usage, start the server with an http port and provide the corresponding URL to your MCP client.

Configuration references

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-starter-mcp-http": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["./bin/cli.mjs", "--http", "--port", "4001"]
      // "args": ["./bin/cli.mjs", "--sse", "--port", "4002"] (deprecated sse usage)
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-starter-mcp-http": {
      "url": "http://localhost:4200/mcp"
      // "url": "http://localhost:4201/sse" (deprecated)
    }
  }
}

Transport options

You can use multiple transport methods. The stdio transport is ideal for local development. Streamable HTTP is suitable for remote access, and SSE is deprecated but still listed for compatibility.

Available tools

cursor_integration

Integrates Cursor AI with MCP server using a predefined .cursor/mcp.json configuration.

http_stream_transport

Supports multiple transport protocols including stdio, HTTP REST, and SSE (deprecated) for MCP communication.