MCP Rust CLI server template

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open protocol that enables seamless integration between LLM applications and external data sources and tools. Whether you’re building an AI-powered IDE, enhancing a chat interface, or creating custom AI workflows, MCP provides a standardized way to connect LLMs with the context they need.

mcp-rs-template is a simple application template that demonstrates how to implement MCP CLI server in Rust.

How to use template?

1. Clone the repository
2. Modify project information in Cargo.toml and src/mcp/mod.rs
3. Modify server handlers:
   • src/mcp/prompts.rs: prompts handlers
   • src/mcp/resources.rs: resources handlers
   • src/mcp/tools.rs: tools handlers
4. Modify src/mcp/templates/*.json if you prefer to use json files for prompts, resources, and tools

mcp-rs-template is based on rust-rpc-router, a JSON-RPC routing library for Rust.

CLI options

• --mcp: Enable MCP server
• --resources: display resources
• --prompts: display prompts
• --tools: display tools

How to use MCP CLI server in Claude Desktop?

1. Edit claude_desktop_config.json: Claude Desktop -> Settings -> Developer -> Edit Config
2. Add the following configuration to the servers section:

{
   "mcpServers": {
      "current-time": {
         "command": "mcp-rs-template",
         "args": [
            "--mcp"
         ],
         "env": {
            "API_KEY": "xxxx"
         }
      }
   }
}

If you want to check MCP log, please use tail -n 20 -f ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp*.log.

References

• MCP Specification: https://spec.modelcontextprotocol.io/
• Model Context Protocol (MCP): https://modelcontextprotocol.io/introduction
• rpc-router: json-rpc routing library - https://github.com/jeremychone/rust-rpc-router/
• Zed context_server: https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/tree/main/crates/context_server