MCP Engineering Handbook — Companion Samples

This repository has the code samples for MCP Engineering Handbook by Peder Holdgaard Pedersen (Packt, 2026). The samples target the 2026-07-28 revision of the Model Context Protocol and the v2 SDKs.

Most samples come in C#, Python and TypeScript. The book prints one of them, marked canonical in the table below. The other two are ports that behave the same way, so you can follow along in the language you prefer. Each sample’s README says what it demonstrates, which section of the book it belongs to, how to run it, and the versions it was tested with.

Prerequisites

A few samples call a hosted model and need an API key. Their READMEs say which and how to set it.

Getting started

1. Clone the repository and pick a sample from the table below, or start with templates/hello-server, a minimal server in all three languages that checks your toolchain.

2. Run it as its README describes. For a stdio server, that is usually one of these:

   cd csharp && dotnet run
   cd python && uv run python server.py
   cd typescript && npm ci && npm run build && npm start
   

3. To explore a server interactively, use the MCP Inspector, the version shown in the book:

   npx @modelcontextprotocol/[email protected]
   

   Add the server with Add Servers > Add manually, using the same command you’d run it with, then open the server’s Settings and set Protocol Era to Auto before you connect. The Inspector defaults to the legacy 2025-11-25 handshake, so without this step you won’t see the 2026-07-28 protocol the samples are written for.

Layout

chapterNN//
  README.md    what it demonstrates, the book section, how to run it, tested versions
  csharp/      .NET 10: dotnet run
  python/      uv: uv run python .py
  typescript/  Node, ESM: npm ci && npm run build && npm start
templates/     walking skeletons (hello-server, hello-client) in all three languages

Samples

Chapters 4, 8, 11 and 13 have no samples: they cover transports, architectures, security and the protocol’s future in prose and diagrams rather than runnable code.