OTC Pricing MCP Server

An open-source Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for the Open Telekom Cloud (OTC) Price Calculator API.

Expose OTC pricing data to Claude and other LLM clients with full observability (structured logging, Prometheus metrics, health checks).

Status: v0.1.3 — STDIO + SSE transports, Kubernetes deployment, full observability

What is MCP?

Model Context Protocol is a standard that enables LLM applications (like Claude) to interact with external tools and data sources. This server supports two transports:

This server gives Claude access to OTC pricing data through 7 specialized tools, on whichever transport you prefer.

What Can You Do With This?

Example Use Cases:

• Ask Claude: "Find the cheapest ECS instance with 4 CPUs and 8GB RAM in eu-de"
• Claude calls find_compute_flavor tool → gets pricing data → answers you
• Ask: "Compare PAYG vs 12-month reserved pricing for S3 storage"
• Claude calls compare_billing_models tool → does the analysis → shows savings

Quick Start

1. Install

Requirements: Python 3.12+

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/seaser0/otc-pricing-mcp.git
cd otc-pricing-mcp

# Install dependencies
uv sync

# Run the server
python -m otc_pricing_mcp

What You'll See:

{"event": "mcp_server_starting", "transports": ["stdio", "sse"], "port": 8080, ...}
{"event": "mcp_server_ready", "status": "accepting_connections", ...}

The server now listens for MCP connections on both stdin/stdout and http://localhost:8080/sse.

2. Connect Your MCP Client

Option A — STDIO (local, Claude Desktop)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "otc-pricing": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "otc_pricing_mcp"],
      "env": {
        "LOG_LEVEL": "INFO",
        "METRICS_PORT": "8080"
      }
    }
  }
}

Option B — SSE (remote, Kubernetes)

Point any MCP client that supports SSE transport at the hosted endpoint:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "otc-pricing": {
      "url": "https://mcp-otc-pricing.nevit.ch/sse"
    }
  }
}

Or test locally while running the server:

# In a second terminal:
curl -N http://localhost:8080/sse
# event: endpoint
# data: /messages/?session_id=<uuid>

3. Start Using Tools

Once connected, Claude can call any of the 7 available tools. See the Tools Reference section below.

Tools Reference

The server exposes 7 MCP tools for different pricing queries:

1. list_services

Purpose: Get all available OTC services

Input: None

Output: List of service names and metadata

Example Claude usage:

"What OTC services are available for pricing?"

2. list_regions

Purpose: Get available OTC regions

Input: None

Output: List of region codes (eu-de, eu-nl, eu-ch2, etc.)

Example Claude usage:

"What regions does OTC support?"

3. get_service_schema

Purpose: Get filterable/returnable columns for a service

Input:

• service (string): Service name (e.g., "ecs", "evs", "obs", "s3", "rds")

Output: Schema with filterable and returnable column names

Example Claude usage:

"What columns can I filter on for ECS pricing?"

4. query_pricing

Purpose: Query pricing data with flexible filtering

Input:

• services (array): List of service names (e.g., ["ecs", "evs"])
• region (string, optional): Filter by region (e.g., "eu-de")
• max_results (integer, optional): Max results to return (default: 5000)

Output: Pricing rows matching the filter

Example Claude usage:

"Show me ECS and EVS pricing in the eu-de region"

5. find_compute_flavor

Purpose: Find compute (ECS) instances by vCPU/RAM/OS

Input:

• v_cpu (integer): Number of virtual CPUs
• ram_gb (number): RAM in GiB
• os (string, optional): Operating system (Linux, Windows, etc.)
• region (string, optional): Region (default: eu-de)

Output: Matching ECS instance types with pricing

Example Claude usage:

"Find a Linux ECS instance with 4 CPUs and 16GB RAM in eu-nl"

6. estimate_monthly_cost

Purpose: Calculate monthly cost for multiple resources

Input:

• items (array): Resources with:
  • id (string): Product ID (e.g., "OTC_S3M1_LI")
  • quantity (number, optional): How many units (default: 1)
  • hours_per_month (number, optional): Usage hours (default: 730)

Output: Itemized costs with monthly total

Example Claude usage:

"Calculate monthly cost for 100GB S3 storage and an ECS instance"

7. compare_billing_models

Purpose: Compare PAYG vs Reserved Instance pricing

Input:

• product_id (string): Product ID (e.g., "OTC_S3M1_LI")
• quantity (number, optional): Quantity (default: 1)
• hours_per_month (number, optional): Usage hours (default: 730)

Output: Cost comparison for PAYG, 12mo, 24mo, 36mo reserved

Example Claude usage:

"Compare PAYG vs 12/24/36 month reserved pricing for ECS"

Configuration

Environment Variables

Control the server behavior with environment variables:

Example:

LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG METRICS_PORT=9090 python -m otc_pricing_mcp

Observability: Metrics & Logs

This server is built with production-grade observability so you can debug issues and monitor performance.

Structured Logging (JSON)

Every action is logged as JSON, making logs machine-readable for aggregation and analysis.

Start the server with DEBUG logging:

LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG python -m otc_pricing_mcp 2>&1

You'll see JSON logs like:

{"timestamp": "2026-05-06T18:00:00.123456Z", "event": "tool_invocation_start", "tool": "query_pricing", "request_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000", "arguments": {"services": ["ecs"]}}

{"timestamp": "2026-05-06T18:00:00.234567Z", "event": "upstream_request_start", "service": "ecs", "request_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"}

{"timestamp": "2026-05-06T18:00:00.345678Z", "event": "upstream_request_success", "service": "ecs", "request_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000", "status_code": 200, "duration_seconds": 0.111, "attempt": 1, "items_returned": 42}

{"timestamp": "2026-05-06T18:00:00.456789Z", "event": "tool_invocation_success", "tool": "query_pricing", "request_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000", "duration_seconds": 0.333}

Key fields in every log:

• timestamp: When the event happened (ISO 8601)
• event: What happened (tool_invocation_start, upstream_request_success, etc.)
• request_id: Unique ID for this request (same across all related logs)
• Custom fields depending on the event

Logs are printed to stderr, so redirect to a file or log aggregator:

python -m otc_pricing_mcp 2>/var/log/otc-pricing-mcp.log

Pipe to jq for pretty printing:

python -m otc_pricing_mcp 2>&1 | jq .

HTTP Endpoints (port 8080)

The uvicorn server exposes all endpoints on port 8080:

Health Checks:

# Liveness check (always 200 if process is up)
curl http://localhost:8080/healthz
# {"status": "ok", "service": "otc-pricing-mcp"}

# Readiness check (verifies OTC API is reachable)
curl http://localhost:8080/readyz
# {"status": "ready", "upstream": "ok", "api_response_time": 0.042}

Prometheus Metrics:

curl http://localhost:8080/metrics

Returns Prometheus format metrics:

# HELP otc_pricing_mcp_requests_total Total MCP tool requests (success and failure)
# TYPE otc_pricing_mcp_requests_total counter
otc_pricing_mcp_requests_total{status="success",tool="query_pricing"} 5.0
otc_pricing_mcp_requests_total{status="error",tool="query_pricing"} 1.0

# HELP otc_pricing_mcp_request_duration_seconds MCP tool request duration in seconds
# TYPE otc_pricing_mcp_request_duration_seconds histogram
otc_pricing_mcp_request_duration_seconds_bucket{le="0.005",tool="query_pricing"} 0.0
otc_pricing_mcp_request_duration_seconds_bucket{le="0.01",tool="query_pricing"} 1.0
...

# HELP otc_pricing_mcp_upstream_requests_total Total upstream OTC API requests (success and failure)
# TYPE otc_pricing_mcp_upstream_requests_total counter
otc_pricing_mcp_upstream_requests_total{service="ecs",status="success"} 10.0
otc_pricing_mcp_upstream_requests_total{service="ecs",status="error"} 2.0
...

Available Metrics:

• otc_pricing_mcp_requests_total{tool, status}: Count of tool invocations
• otc_pricing_mcp_request_duration_seconds{tool}: Tool execution time
• otc_pricing_mcp_upstream_requests_total{service, status}: Count of API calls
• otc_pricing_mcp_upstream_duration_seconds{service}: API call latency

Using Prometheus:

Add to your prometheus.yml:

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'otc-pricing-mcp'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['localhost:8080']

Then query in Prometheus:

rate(otc_pricing_mcp_requests_total[5m])  # Requests per second
histogram_quantile(0.95, otc_pricing_mcp_request_duration_seconds_bucket)  # p95 latency

Debugging Guide

Problem: Slow API Calls

Check the logs:

LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG python -m otc_pricing_mcp 2>&1 | jq 'select(.event == "upstream_request_success") | {service, duration_seconds}'

Check metrics:

curl http://localhost:8080/metrics | grep upstream_duration_seconds

Problem: Tool Fails

Look for error logs:

LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG python -m otc_pricing_mcp 2>&1 | jq 'select(.event == "tool_invocation_error")'

Example error log:

{
  "event": "tool_invocation_error",
  "tool": "query_pricing",
  "request_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "error": "list index out of range",
  "error_type": "IndexError",
  "duration_seconds": 0.001,
  "exc_info": true
}

Problem: OTC API Unreachable

Check readiness endpoint:

curl -v http://localhost:8080/readyz
# HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable
# {"status": "not_ready", "upstream": "unreachable", "error": "..."}

Check metrics:

curl http://localhost:8080/metrics | grep upstream_requests_total
# Will show increased error counts

Problem: Need Full Request Trace

Use request_id to trace a request:

# Get the request_id from any log
LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG python -m otc_pricing_mcp 2>&1 | jq 'select(.request_id == "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000")'

This shows all logs for that request in order:

1. tool_invocation_start
2. upstream_request_start
3. upstream_request_success (with items_returned)
4. tool_invocation_success

Running Locally (Development)

Setup

# Clone repo
git clone https://github.com/seaser0/otc-pricing-mcp.git
cd otc-pricing-mcp

# Install with dev dependencies
uv sync

# Run tests
uv run pytest tests/ -v

# Check code quality
uv run ruff check src/
uv run mypy src/ --strict

Run in Development Mode

# With debug logging
LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG python -m otc_pricing_mcp

# In another terminal, test the endpoints
curl http://localhost:8080/healthz | jq .
curl http://localhost:8080/metrics

Running in Production (Docker)

Build Image

docker build -t otc-pricing-mcp:latest .

Run Container

docker run \
  --name otc-pricing-mcp \
  -e LOG_LEVEL=INFO \
  -e METRICS_PORT=8080 \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  otc-pricing-mcp:latest

Kubernetes Deployment

See deploy/kubernetes/ for the full manifest set (Deployment, Service, Ingress, NetworkPolicy, ServiceMonitor, PodDisruptionBudget).

The server is deployed to https://mcp-otc-pricing.nevit.ch via ArgoCD. Connect remote clients to:

https://mcp-otc-pricing.nevit.ch/sse

Key features:

• Non-root user, read-only root filesystem
• Resource limits (100m–500m CPU, 128Mi–512Mi RAM)
• Liveness probe: GET /healthz on port 8080
• Readiness probe: GET /readyz on port 8080
• NetworkPolicy: ingress from nginx controller only, egress to DNS + OTC API
• ServiceMonitor for Prometheus scraping
• Managed by ArgoCD with selfHeal: true and prune: true

Architecture

Request Flow

Claude Client
    │
    ├─ STDIO transport (local)      ──┐
    │  stdin/stdout                   │
    │                                 ▼
    └─ SSE transport (remote)      MCP Server (server.py)
       GET  /sse                     - List tools
       POST /messages/               - Route tool calls
                                     - Log invocations
                                     - Record metrics
                                         │
                                         ▼
                                   HTTP Client (client.py)
                                     - Build request
                                     - Retry logic
                                     - Parse response
                                         │
                                         ▼
                                   OTC Price Calculator API

Both transports share the same MCP Server instance and run concurrently in the same asyncio event loop.

Component Overview

Enhancement Ideas (Future Development)

Stories 0–9 are complete. The following are post-v1.0 enhancements:

Enhancement Ideas

Caching

• Cache pricing data for N seconds to reduce API load
• Redis or in-memory cache option
• Cache invalidation strategy

Advanced Querying

• More filtering options (e.g., price range, commitment period)
• Sorting by price, CPU, RAM
• Aggregations (min/max/avg pricing per service)

Cost Analysis Tools

• Historical pricing trends
• Cost anomaly detection
• Recommendation engine (right-sizing)

Multi-Cloud Support

• AWS pricing API integration
• Azure pricing API integration
• Cost comparison across clouds

User Preferences

• Save favorite services/regions
• Custom pricing alerts
• Budget tracking per project

Better Error Recovery

• Exponential backoff with jitter (vs fixed exponential)
• Circuit breaker pattern
• Fallback to cached data on API failure

Performance Optimizations

• Query result pagination
• Database caching layer
• Streaming responses for large datasets

Observability Enhancements

• Distributed tracing (OpenTelemetry)
• Custom business metrics (cost calculated, queries per service)
• Log aggregation integration (Loki, ELK)
• Alert rules (Prometheus Alertmanager)

Testing Improvements

• Load testing (k6, Locust)
• Chaos testing (failure scenarios)
• Contract testing with OTC API

API Stability

• API versioning (v1, v2)
• Deprecation policies
• Backward compatibility guarantees

Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for:

• Development setup
• Code style (ruff, mypy --strict)
• Testing requirements (53+ tests with coverage)
• Security scanning (bandit, cyclonedx-bom)
• Commit message conventions

Quick PR Checklist:

• Tests pass: uv run pytest tests/
• Linting passes: uv run ruff check src/
• Type checking passes: uv run mypy src/ --strict
• Security scan passes: uv run bandit -r src/
• Meaningful commit message

License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE file.

Copyright: NEVIT (platform@nevit.ch)

Getting Help

Questions or Issues?

1. Check the Debugging Guide above
2. Open a GitHub Issue: https://github.com/seaser0/otc-pricing-mcp/issues
3. Check logs with: LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG python -m otc_pricing_mcp 2>&1 | jq .

Want to Report a Security Issue? See SECURITY.md for responsible disclosure.

Project Status

Architecture Decisions

See docs/ directory for detailed documentation:

• docs/ci-cd.md — CI/CD workflow details
• docs/deployment.md — Deployment guide
• docs/security.md — Security features and considerations

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Last updated: 2026-05-07