ft_mcp

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server implemented from scratch in Python, without an MCP SDK.

MCP is an open, JSON-RPC 2.0 protocol that lets an AI host — such as Claude Desktop or the MCP Inspector — discover and invoke tools exposed by an external server over a standard transport. This project implements the server side of that protocol directly: the stdio framing, the JSON-RPC routing, the lifecycle handshake, schema validation, and the tool layer.

The implementation deliberately avoids an MCP SDK so the protocol mechanics stay explicit rather than hidden behind a library. The core (stdio transport) depends only on the Python standard library; aiohttp is needed only for the optional HTTP/SSE transport.

Scope

• Transports: stdio (primary); Streamable HTTP + SSE (optional).
• Lifecycle: initialize / notifications/initialized with protocol-version negotiation and capability advertisement.
• Tools: registry, tools/list, tools/call, JSON Schema (draft 2020-12) validation. Two reference tools: get_system_time and calculate_file_hash.
• Additional primitives: prompts/list, prompts/get, resources/list, resources/read.
• Diagnostics: structured logging and per-method timing, written to stderr only.

Supported protocol versions: 2025-11-25 and 2025-03-26.

Requirements

Python 3.10 or newer. The stdio server needs nothing else.

Installation

git clone https://github.com/alsaeed3/ft_mcp.git
cd ft_mcp

pip install -e .            # core (stdio) only
pip install -e ".[http]"    # add the optional HTTP/SSE transport
pip install -e ".[dev]"     # add pytest

Installation is optional; the server also runs directly from the source tree with python -m ft_mcp.

Usage

The server reads JSON-RPC messages from stdin, writes responses to stdout, and logs to stderr.

python -m ft_mcp

A full session — handshake, tool discovery, and a tool call — driven by hand:

printf '%s\n' \
  '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2025-11-25"}}' \
  '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"notifications/initialized"}' \
  '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/list"}' \
  '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":3,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"get_system_time","arguments":{}}}' \
  | python -m ft_mcp

Connecting a host

MCP Inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector python -m ft_mcp

Claude Desktop — add the server to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ft_mcp": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "ft_mcp"],
      "cwd": "/absolute/path/to/ft_mcp"
    }
  }
}

Architecture

The server is organized into three layers, kept independent of one another so each can be reasoned about and tested on its own. The same router serves both transports unchanged.

                 ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
   stdin  ─────▶ │  Transport            (ft_mcp/transport)      │
                 │  newline-delimited framing; flush-after-write │
   stdout ◀───── │  stdout carries protocol bytes only          │
                 └───────────────────────┬──────────────────────┘
                                         │ one UTF-8 line per message
                                         ▼
                 ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
                 │  JSON-RPC 2.0 router  (ft_mcp/router)         │
                 │  parse → classify → dispatch                  │
                 │  lifecycle gate; error taxonomy               │
                 └───────────────────────┬──────────────────────┘
                                         │ validated params
                                         ▼
                 ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
                 │  Business logic       (ft_mcp/tools)          │
                 │  tool registry, schemas, prompts, resources   │
                 └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Two constraints shape the transport layer. First, stdout is the protocol channel, so it carries nothing but newline-terminated JSON-RPC messages, flushed after each write; all diagnostics go to stderr. Second, stdin is read without blocking the event loop, so a long-running tool does not stall message intake.

A more detailed description — the lifecycle state machine, message classification, the error taxonomy, and the security model — is in docs/ARCHITECTURE.md.

Tools

Tool	Arguments	Description
get_system_time	(none)	Returns the current UTC time as an ISO 8601 string. Its schema sets additionalProperties: false so callers are not led to invent arguments.
calculate_file_hash	path (string), algorithm (md5 | sha1 | sha256)	Streams a file in 64 KiB chunks and returns its hex digest. The path is canonicalized and confined to an allowed root.

Each tool declares a JSON Schema (draft 2020-12) inputSchema. The router validates tools/call arguments against it and returns -32602 on a mismatch before the handler runs.

Error handling

The server distinguishes protocol errors from tool errors, because a host treats them differently.

Category	Example	Response
Protocol	truncated JSON	error -32700, id: null
Protocol	missing "jsonrpc":"2.0"	error -32600, id: null
Protocol	unknown method or tool	error -32601
Protocol	schema-invalid params	error -32602
Protocol	unexpected handler exception	error -32603
Tool logic	hashing a missing file	success result with isError: true and an error message

Tool failures are returned as successful responses carrying isError: true rather than JSON-RPC errors, so the model receives the message as feedback. Application-defined codes (for example the HTTP transport's invalid-session -32000) stay outside the reserved -32768..-32000 range.

Security

Tool inputs are treated as untrusted. calculate_file_hash resolves paths with os.path.realpath (so symlinks are followed to their target before the containment check), performs a boundary-aware check against an allowed root, and opens the file with O_NOFOLLOW to avoid a time-of-check/time-of-use swap. The HTTP transport binds to loopback, validates the Origin header against loopback for browser clients (DNS-rebinding protection), and echoes only the validated origin in CORS headers.

Optional HTTP/SSE transport

pip install -e ".[http]"
python -m ft_mcp --http --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8080

GET /mcp/sse opens an event stream and announces a POST endpoint; POST /mcp/messages accepts JSON-RPC and correlates each reply back onto the matching SSE session.

Testing

pip install -e ".[dev]"
python -m pytest -q

The suite in tests/test_protocol.py runs the server as a subprocess and asserts its responses at the protocol boundary — parse and invalid-request errors, the initialize handshake, tools/list and tools/call, tool errors surfacing as isError, stdout purity, and clean shutdown on EOF.

Project layout

ft_mcp/
├── __main__.py            # entry point and handler wiring (stdio / --http)
├── log.py                 # stderr-only logger
├── transport/
│   ├── stdio.py           # async stdin reader, flush-after-write writer
│   └── http.py            # optional HTTP + SSE transport
├── router/
│   ├── dispatch.py        # JSON-RPC parse, classify, dispatch, validation
│   ├── lifecycle.py       # session state machine
│   └── errors.py          # error codes and helper
└── tools/
    ├── registry.py        # tool dataclass and registry
    ├── system_time.py     # get_system_time
    ├── file_hash.py       # calculate_file_hash
    ├── prompts.py         # prompts and resources
    └── telemetry.py       # per-method timing → stderr

tests/test_protocol.py     # protocol compliance suite

License

MIT