🧠 What is MCP Server?
MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server enables seamless interaction between AI models and your backend systems.
It acts as a bridge, allowing prompts to trigger backend operations, retrieve data, or even perform automation tasks — all through natural language.
If you’ve ever wished your LLM could query your database, trigger workflows, or call APIs directly — MCP is the missing link.
🏗️ Build an MCP Server in .NET and VS Code
“I just wish the LLM could query my own database without me pasting schema dumps into the prompt.”
If that sounds familiar, the Model Context Protocol (MCP) is your new best friend.
In this tutorial, we’ll:
- Spin up a simple MCP context server in C#.
- Add a demo tool called
get_weather. - Run it all inside VS Code — no Docker, no cloud.
1️⃣ What exactly is MCP?
Think “LSP for LLMs.”
- LSP = editor ⇄ language server
- MCP = LLM ⇄ context server
A context server exposes:
- 🧩 Tools – functions the LLM can invoke at runtime
- 📂 Resources – data or files it can read on demand
- 🪄 Prompts – reusable prompt templates
Transport uses JSON-RPC 2.0 over stdio or SSE (Server-Sent Events), so any language works — including .NET 8.
2️⃣ Setup in VS Code
Install the following extensions:
- 🧱 C# Dev Kit →
ms-dotnettools.csdevkit - 🤖 Model Context Protocol →
modelcontextprotocol.mcp
Make sure you have .NET 8 SDK:
bash
dotnet --version # 8.0.100+ is fine
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