MCP Server Starter Template (TypeScript)

Why a Brand-Owned MCP Server Matters

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is the agent-tool surface most-likely to determine which brands AI assistants pull live information from in 2026. A brand-owned MCP server lets ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, OpenClaw, and any other MCP-compatible client query your authoritative data (catalogue, pricing, support FAQs, availability) directly instead of relying on stale crawled content. This template gives you a TypeScript scaffold that is production-deployable in 30 minutes.

What This Starter Provides

• A working MCP server in TypeScript using the official MCP SDK.
• Four reference tools: get_product, search_catalogue, get_faq, get_pricing.
• Two reference resources: brand://about, brand://policies.
• Read-only by default (safe for public deployment).
• Comments showing where to add authentication for sensitive operations.

Project Setup

mkdir my-brand-mcp && cd my-brand-mcp
npm init -y
npm install @modelcontextprotocol/sdk zod
npm install -D typescript @types/node tsx

Create tsconfig.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "ES2022",
    "module": "node16",
    "strict": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "outDir": "dist"
  },
  "include": ["src/**/*"]
}

The Server (src/index.ts)

import { McpServer } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/mcp.js";
import { StdioServerTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/stdio.js";
import { z } from "zod";

// Replace this with your real data source (DB, JSON file, API)
const catalogue = [
  { sku: "ACX5-BLK", name: "Acme Wireless Headphones X5", priceUSD: 299, inStock: true },
  { sku: "ACX5-WHT", name: "Acme Wireless Headphones X5 (White)", priceUSD: 299, inStock: true },
  { sku: "ACM2-BLK", name: "Acme Earbuds Mini 2", priceUSD: 149, inStock: false },
];

const faqs = [
  { q: "What is your return policy?", a: "30 days from purchase, full refund if unopened." },
  { q: "Do you ship internationally?", a: "Yes, to 47 countries via DHL Express." },
];

const server = new McpServer({
  name: "acme-brand",
  version: "1.0.0",
});

// Tool: get a single product
server.tool(
  "get_product",
  { sku: z.string().describe("Product SKU") },
  async ({ sku }) => {
    const product = catalogue.find((p) => p.sku === sku);
    return {
      content: [
        {
          type: "text",
          text: product ? JSON.stringify(product) : "Product not found",
        },
      ],
    };
  }
);

// Tool: keyword search across the catalogue
server.tool(
  "search_catalogue",
  { query: z.string().describe("Search keywords") },
  async ({ query }) => {
    const q = query.toLowerCase();
    const matches = catalogue.filter((p) => p.name.toLowerCase().includes(q));
    return {
      content: [{ type: "text", text: JSON.stringify(matches) }],
    };
  }
);

// Tool: answer a FAQ
server.tool(
  "get_faq",
  { question: z.string().describe("Customer question") },
  async ({ question }) => {
    const q = question.toLowerCase();
    const match = faqs.find((f) => q.includes(f.q.toLowerCase().split(" ").slice(0, 3).join(" ")));
    return {
      content: [
        {
          type: "text",
          text: match
            ? `Q: ${match.q}\nA: ${match.a}`
            : "No matching FAQ found. Please contact support.",
        },
      ],
    };
  }
);

// Tool: get pricing for a product
server.tool(
  "get_pricing",
  { sku: z.string().describe("Product SKU") },
  async ({ sku }) => {
    const product = catalogue.find((p) => p.sku === sku);
    return {
      content: [
        {
          type: "text",
          text: product
            ? `${product.name}: $${product.priceUSD} USD (${product.inStock ? "in stock" : "out of stock"})`
            : "Product not found",
        },
      ],
    };
  }
);

// Resource: brand about page
server.resource(
  "brand://about",
  "About the brand",
  async () => ({
    contents: [
      {
        uri: "brand://about",
        mimeType: "text/plain",
        text: "Acme is a consumer audio brand founded in 2014, headquartered in Brooklyn NY.",
      },
    ],
  })
);

// Resource: brand policies
server.resource(
  "brand://policies",
  "Brand policies",
  async () => ({
    contents: [
      {
        uri: "brand://policies",
        mimeType: "text/plain",
        text: "Returns: 30 days. Warranty: 2 years. Privacy: stored at brand-host EU + US regions only.",
      },
    ],
  })
);

const transport = new StdioServerTransport();
await server.connect(transport);
console.error("Acme MCP server running on stdio.");

Run the Server

npx tsx src/index.ts

Connect from Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or the Windows equivalent:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "acme-brand": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["tsx", "/absolute/path/to/my-brand-mcp/src/index.ts"]
    }
  }
}

Production Considerations

1. Move catalogue and FAQ data out of code. Hit your real product database or content API.
2. Add authentication. The starter is unauthenticated and read-only. For write tools or sensitive data, add OAuth or bearer-token auth at the transport layer.
3. Add observability. Log tool invocations, latencies, and error rates. MCP servers are AI surfaces; you want monitoring data the same way you do for APIs.
4. Publish discovery metadata. Expose the server URL and capabilities in your llms.txt and on a public /mcp page so agents can find it.
5. Version the tools. Treat tool signatures as public API. Breaking changes need migration guidance.