How to build your first MCP server in 10 minutes

GrahamduesCN — Wed, 20 May 2026 18:00:03 +0000

I built my first MCP server last week and it was way simpler than I expected. Here is exactly how, no fluff.

Prerequisites

Node.js 20+
10 minutes

Step 1: Scaffold

npx create-mcp-server my-first-server
cd my-first-server
npm install

This generates a complete TypeScript project with one example tool.

Step 2: Add your tool

Open src/index.ts. Replace the hello tool with whatever you want:

server.setRequestHandler(CallToolRequestSchema, async (request) => {
  const { name, arguments: args } = request.params;

  if (name === 'current_time') {
    return {
      content: [{ type: 'text', text: new Date().toISOString() }]
    };
  }

  throw new Error(`Unknown tool: ${name}`);
});

Step 3: Build and connect

npm run build
npm start

Add to Claude Desktop config and you are done.

The whole thing took me 8 minutes. Most of that was reading the docs.

What I learned

The MCP SDK handles all the transport layer — you just define tools
StdioServerTransport means your server runs as a subprocess. No HTTP, no port conflicts
Error handling is important. If your tool crashes, the whole MCP connection breaks

Want to try it?

npm install -g mcp-hub
mcp-hub search mcp

Built with mcp-hub. If this helps, buy me a coffee.

I built mcp-hub — a CLI to find and install MCP servers without digging through npm

GrahamduesCN — Wed, 20 May 2026 11:13:17 +0000

MCP has 13,000+ servers and 97M monthly SDK downloads. But finding them sucks — you search npm with weird prefixes or dig through GitHub folders.

So I built mcp-hub:

npm install -g mcp-hub
mcp-hub search database
mcp-hub install @modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres

What it does

mcp-hub search — find servers by keyword
mcp-hub install — one command, real npm package
mcp-hub popular — see what is trending

Terminal-based. TypeScript + Node.js. No framework, just commander + chalk.

What I got wrong

npm install -g needs sudo on Linux. Added --method npx but it is clunky.
Only 5 servers in the registry. Need a submission system.
Web dashboard is static HTML loading from a JSON file.

Stack

TypeScript + Node.js + commander + chalk. Zero framework.

DEV Community: GrahamduesCN