AI Makerspace: MCP Session Repo for Session 13

This project is a demonstration of the MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, which utilizes the Tavily API for web search capabilities. The server is designed to run in a standard input/output (stdio) transport mode.

Project Overview

The MCP server is set up to handle web search queries using the Tavily API. It is built with the following key components:

TavilyClient: A client for interacting with the Tavily API to perform web searches.

Prerequisites

Python 3.13 or higher
A valid Tavily API key

⚠️NOTE FOR WINDOWS:⚠️

You'll need to install this on the Windows side of your OS.

This will require getting two CLI tool for Powershell, which you can do as follows:

winget install astral-sh.uv
winget install --id Git.Git -e --source winget

After you have those CLI tools, please open Cursor into Windows.

Then, you can clone the repository using the following command in your Cursor terminal:

git clone https://AI-Maker-Space/AIE8-MCP-Session.git

After that, you can follow from Step 2. below!

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone <repository-url>
cd <repository-directory>

Configure environment variables: Create a .env file in the project root and add your API keys:
```
TAVILY_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
COINGECKO_API_KEY=your_coingecko_api_key_here  # Optional - free tier works without key but has rate limits
```
Note: CoinGecko API can work without an API key, but using one provides higher rate limits (10-50 calls/minute with free tier).
🏗️ Add a new tool to your MCP Server 🏗️

Create a new tool in the server.py file, that's it!

Running the MCP Server

To start the MCP server, you will need to add the following to your MCP Profile in Cursor:

NOTE: To get to your MCP config. you can use the Command Pallete (CMD/CTRL+SHIFT+P) and select "View: Open MCP Settings" and replace the contents with the JSON blob below.

{
    "mcpServers":  {
        "mcp-server": {
            "command" : "uv",
            "args" : ["--directory", "/PATH/TO/REPOSITORY", "run", "server.py"]
        }
    }
}

The server will start and listen for commands via standard input/output.

Usage

The server provides several tools:

web_search: Search the web for information about a given query using Tavily API
roll_dice: Roll dice with standard notation (e.g., "2d20k1" for 2 twenty-sided dice, keep highest 1)
get_crypto_price: Get current cryptocurrency price and market data from CoinGecko API (e.g., "bitcoin", "ethereum")

Activities:

There are a few activities for this assignment!

🏗️ Activity #1:

Choose an API that you enjoy using - and build an MCP server for it!

🏗️ Activity #2:

Build a simple LangGraph application that interacts with your MCP Server.

You can find details here!

AI Makerspace MCP Server