This course covers MCP, a protocol for connecting Claude to external services and data sources without manually writing tool schemas. You'll learn to build both MCP servers that expose tools, resources, and prompts, and MCP clients that consume them. The course includes a hands-on project where you implement a document management system using MCP.
Introduction to Model Context Protocol
Build MCP servers and clients from scratch with the Python SDK, covering the three core primitives—tools, resources, and prompts—that connect Claude to external services.
10 lessons1 hr1 quizCompletion badge
What you’ll learnBy the end of this course, you’ll be able to
- Understand MCP architecture and how it shifts tool definition and execution burden from your server to specialized MCP servers
- Learn about MCP's transport-agnostic communication system and the message types used between clients and servers
- Explore the complete request-response flow from user queries through MCP clients to external services and back to Claude
- Build MCP servers using the Python SDK with decorators to define tools instead of writing JSON schemas manually
- Implement document management functionality with tools for reading and editing documents using Field descriptions and type hints
- Use the built-in MCP Server Inspector to test and debug your server functionality in a browser-based interface
- Define resources for exposing read-only data, including both direct resources with static URIs and templated resources with parameters
- Implement resource reading functionality in clients with proper MIME type handling for JSON and text content
- Build prompts that provide pre-crafted, high-quality instructions for common workflows like document formatting
- Understand when to use each MCP primitive: tools (model-controlled), resources (app-controlled), and prompts (user-controlled)
- Examine practical integration patterns including autocomplete functionality and context injection for AI conversations
Who it’s for
Engineers who want to integrate Claude with external tools and services without writing tons of boilerplate integration code
Before you start
- Basic Python programming experience
- Understanding of async/await patterns
- Familiarity with API concepts
Inside the course
Introduction
2 lessonsStart with understanding MCP's architecture and why it exists.
Hands-on with MCP servers
2 lessonsBuild your first MCP server with tools using the Python SDK, then test it with the built-in inspector.
Connecting with MCP clients
5 lessonsBuild the client side to communicate with MCP servers. Implement resources for direct data access and prompts for pre-built instructions. See how everything connects in a complete application flow.