Walter Emmanuel Salas Jimenez

Posted on Dec 1

🚀 Build a Remote MCP Server That Connects to Any MCP Client (Claude, VSCode & More)

#programming #webdev #ai

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is quickly becoming the new universal standard for connecting AI assistants with real-world tools. Imagine giving Claude, VSCode, or any MCP-compatible client the power to interact with your APIs, databases, scripts, or cloud resources—securely and consistently.

In this guide, you’ll learn:

✨ What an MCP Server is

⚙️ How to build one

🔌 How MCP Clients connect

🧰 Deployment options (Cloudflare, Cloud Run, custom hosting)

💻 Example code + a public repository template

🧠 What Is an MCP Server?

An MCP Server is a backend service that exposes tools, resources, prompts, or custom logic to AI clients through a standardized protocol.

Think of it as:

🛠️ Your own plugin system for AI models.

If you can code it, an LLM can use it.

With an MCP Server, you can expose:

📡 API requests
🗂️ Database queries
💾 File operations
🔐 Secure internal tools
🧮 Business logic
🛠️ Any custom code/functionality

And any MCP Client can use it immediately:

Claude Desktop
Claude on Web (with model contexts)
VSCode MCP Extension
Cursor (partial)
Custom terminals or agents

🔌 How MCP Servers Connect to Clients

MCP uses a clean JSON-based message protocol on top of common transports:

🔗 WebSockets
🧵 STDIO
🌐 HTTP Streaming
☁️ Cloudflare Workers Channels
🚀 Google Cloud Run HTTP endpoints

Clients send messages like:

initialize
list_tools
call_tool
read_resource

And the server responds with structured results.

This design makes MCP servers portable, cloud-ready, and language-agnostic 💡.

🛠️ Minimal MCP Server Example (TypeScript)

Below is a simple starter server that exposes one tool called hello_world:

import { Server, Tool } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server";

const server = new Server({
  name: "example-mcp-server",
  version: "1.0.0",
});

server.tool(
  new Tool("hello_world", {
    description: "Returns a greeting message.",
    inputSchema: {
      type: "object",
      properties: {
        name: { type: "string" },
      },
      required: ["name"],
    },
    async handler({ name }) {
      return { message: `Hello, ${name}!` };
    },
  })
);

server.listen();

This simple server:

✔️ Registers one tool
✔️ Accepts a name argument
✔️ Returns a message response
✔️ Works with any MCP client

🧩 Connecting Your MCP Server to Claude Desktop

{
  "servers": [
    {
      "name": "My MCP Server",
      "type": "websocket",
      "url": "wss://your-public-server.com"
    }
  ]
}

🧩 Connecting to VSCode (MCP Extension)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "myServer": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["./dist/server.js"]
    }
  }
}

Your tools will show up in the MCP panel inside VSCode 📎.

☁️ Deployment Options

🌩️ 1. Cloudflare Workers

Perfect for serverless, instant deployments:

Steps:

Clone example project
Configure wrangler.toml
Run wrangler deploy
Fast, free-tier friendly, globally distributed.

🚀 2. Google Cloud Run

Google published a full tutorial + sample repo:

Cloud Run gives you:

Auto-scaling
Pay-per-request
HTTPS by default

🧱 3. Custom Hosting

Run it anywhere:

EC2
Docker
Kubernetes
PM2 on a VPS
Local dev machine

MCP only requires a transport channel (WebSocket or STDIO).

🎯 Why Build Your Own MCP Server?

💼 Enterprise automation
🛡️ Secure tool access
🔌 Standardized integrations
🧩 One tool layer usable across all AI apps
⚡ Faster development for agentic workflows
🌍 Cloud portability and vendor independence

If you're building AI-powered tools, MCP Servers are the future.

📦 Example Public Repository

Here is a clean, minimal, ready-to-use MCP Server starter repo:

👉 GitHub Example (Community Template):

This repository includes:

TypeScript source code
Example tools
Transport implementation
Scripts for running the server
Instructions for connecting to Claude and VSCode

You can fork it and start adding your own tools immediately.

🎉 Final Thoughts

MCP is transforming how AI apps interact with the real world.
By building your own MCP Server, you unlock:

✨ Secure, structured, AI-driven automation
✨ Native integration with Claude & IDEs
✨ Cloud-ready extensibility
✨ A reusable tool layer for any AI agent

If you want, I can also:

🔧 Build a full boilerplate MCP server repo for you
📘 Write a step-by-step Cloudflare or Cloud Run deployment guide
🧩 Generate architecture diagrams
🎨 Create a cover image for your dev.to article

Just tell me!

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