Shayne Boyer

Posted on Nov 26

🚀 Build Your First Remote MCP Server on Azure Using TypeScript — and Supercharge Your AI Workflows

#mcp #azure #javascript #typescript

If you're experimenting with the Model Context Protocol (MCP), you've already seen how powerful it is for connecting tools, agents, and applications into unified workflows.

But the real magic happens when your MCP server is not running on your laptop… but deployed in the cloud.

Azure now provides first-class support for Remote MCP Servers built in TypeScript and JavaScript, giving you scalable, secure, team-ready capabilities for AI-integrated workflows—from GitHub Copilot to custom agent frameworks.

This post covers why Remote MCP Servers matter, how Azure Functions make them simple, and where to start with official docs and sample repos.

🌩️ Why Build a Remote MCP Server?

Local MCP servers are great for quick prototyping, but teams hit real limits:

Local servers can’t scale
They aren’t shareable
They break inside containers and DevBoxes
They can’t reach VNet-secured resources
They rely on local credentials
Long-running tasks are fragile

Remote MCP Servers on Azure solve all of this.

Running in Azure Functions gives you:

Serverless scale
Enterprise-grade security
Managed Identity (no secrets on laptops)
Team-wide reusability
Integration with Azure services (Key Vault, SQL, Cosmos, Storage, Container Apps, etc.)

If you're building anything “agentic,” this unlocks a new world of capabilities.

📘 Start With the Official Microsoft Docs

Azure has three key resources to help you get started:

👉 Full Tutorial (TypeScript)

Build a Remote MCP server on Azure Functions
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions/functions-mcp-tutorial?tabs=mcp-extension&pivots=programming-language-typescript

This covers:

Setting up your project
Writing your first MCP action
Deploying with azd
Securing access
Testing from VS Code

👉 Quickstart: Custom Remote MCP Server

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions/scenario-custom-remote-mcp-server?tabs=linux&pivots=programming-language-typescript

Perfect if you already understand Functions and want the shortest path to success.

👉 Official Sample Repo

https://github.com/Azure-Samples/remote-mcp-functions

Includes:

Multiple MCP endpoints
Schemas & patterns
Deployment templates (azd)
Logging + error-handling examples
A recommended project structure

Use this repo as your starting point when building your own server.

🛠 How It Works (Simplified)

A Remote MCP server is just an Azure Function that returns MCP-compliant JSON.

Here’s a minimal TypeScript example:

// Hello function - responds with hello message
export async function mcpToolHello(_toolArguments:unknown, context: InvocationContext): Promise<string> {
    console.log(_toolArguments);
    // Get name from the tool arguments
    const mcptoolargs = context.triggerMetadata.mcptoolargs as {
        name?: string;
    };
    const name = mcptoolargs?.name;

    console.info(`Hello ${name}, I am MCP Tool!`);
    return `Hello ${name || 'World'}, I am MCP Tool!`;
}

// Register the hello tool
app.mcpTool('hello', {
    toolName: 'hello',
    description: 'Simple hello world MCP Tool that responses with a hello message.',
    toolProperties:{
        name: arg.string().describe('Required property to identify the caller.').optional()
    },
    handler: mcpToolHello
});

Deploy to Azure:

azd up

Now your MCP server is reachable from:

VS Code MCP Extension
GitHub Copilot
LangChain agents
Custom MCP clients
Automation pipelines and CI/CD

💡 What Developers Are Building Today

🔹 Cloud & infra automation

Validate Bicep, deploy Container Apps, check resource health.

🔹 DevOps workflows

Run tests, inspect containers, automate PR tasks.

🔹 Secure enterprise data connectors

Provide scoped, read-only access to internal SQL, Storage, Key Vault, etc.

🔹 Knowledge tools

Chunk, embed, and search documents stored in Azure.

🔹 Multi-step orchestration

Expose “one-call” MCP actions that run entire workflows under the hood.

🌐 Why TypeScript + Azure Functions Is a Perfect Match

Type-safe MCP schemas
Serverless autoscale
Zero infrastructure
Managed Identity → no secrets in your MCP client
One-command deploy (azd up)
Great for local dev, Codespaces, or remote teams

If you're already writing Node/TS, this feels natural and productive.

🧪 Try It Yourself — And Give Feedback

This is an evolving area—and Microsoft is actively looking for real developer feedback.

If you're building:

custom AI tools
cloud automation
team-wide secure connectors
multi-tool agent solutions

Now is the perfect time to explore Remote MCP Servers and help shape the next wave of agentic development.

🙌 Wrap-Up

Remote MCP Servers on Azure give developers cloud-grade scale, identity, and reliability, and TypeScript support makes them incredibly easy to adopt.

Start building now:

If you make something cool—publish it!
If you hit a rough edge—open an issue.
If you have ideas—share them loudly.

We’re still early in this space, and your creativity helps shape the direction of MCP and cloud-based agentic workflows.

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