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

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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 } ` ); });

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Step 3: Build and connect

npm run build npm start

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Add to Claude Desktop config and you are done.

The whole thing took me 8 minutes.…