Signal MCP

Static portfolios are boring.

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) server powers Signal’s live integrations. It connects the system to GitHub activity, Spotify listening history, and blog content, providing real-time data that makes the portfolio feel alive.

What it does

The MCP server is a lightweight Express service that:

• Handles GitHub activity integration
• Connects to Spotify for “Now Playing” and recent history
• Converts blog RSS feeds into consumable JSON
• Exposes MCP-compliant endpoints so the backend can call tools through OpenRouter

It doesn’t interact with models directly. Instead, it responds when the backend orchestrates a tool call, returning structured data that can be streamed back into the conversation.

Architecture overview

The MCP server acts as Signal’s live data provider, bridging the system to external APIs.

Tech stack

• Runtime: Node.js
• Framework: Express
• Protocol: Model Context Protocol (MCP) SDK
• Integrations: GitHub REST API, Spotify Web API, Blog RSS feed
• Dev tooling: ESLint, Prettier, Husky, and shared configs via dev-config

Local development

Signal’s services can be run locally, but setup involves multiple moving parts.
For now, the easiest way to explore Signal is the live demo.

Future work may include a simplified docker-compose flow for local development.

Explore

• Overview repo
• Backend repo
• Frontend repo
• RAG repo
• Live demo

Signal context

The MCP server reflects how I approach integration boundaries and system interoperability. By isolating third-party APIs behind a single protocol-compliant service, the architecture stays modular and secure. This design makes it easier for teams to extend or swap integrations without affecting the rest of the system. This is a principle I carry into larger engineering projects.