Chapter 1: Getting Started

April 13, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

Welcome to Chapter 1: Getting Started. In this part of FastMCP Tutorial: Building and Operating MCP Servers with Pythonic Control, you will build an intuitive mental model first, then move into concrete implementation details and practical production tradeoffs.

This chapter gives you a quick path from installation to a working FastMCP server and first client call.

Learning Goals

  • create and run a minimal server with one tool
  • validate a basic client-server call loop
  • understand local stdio versus HTTP first-run choices
  • establish a repeatable baseline for future extension

Fast Start Loop

  1. install FastMCP from the installation guide
  2. create a minimal server with FastMCP(...) and one @mcp.tool
  3. run locally using mcp.run() or fastmcp run ...
  4. call the tool from a client to verify end-to-end behavior
  5. capture this setup as your baseline template for new services

Source References

Summary

You now have a reliable baseline for expanding FastMCP servers beyond toy examples.

Next: Chapter 2: Core Abstractions: Components, Providers, Transforms

How These Components Connect

flowchart TD
    A[Install fastmcp] --> B[Create FastMCP server]
    B --> C[Define tools with @mcp.tool]
    B --> D[Define resources with @mcp.resource]
    C --> E[Run: mcp.run()]
    D --> E
    E --> F{Transport}
    F -->|stdio| G[Claude Desktop / local host]
    F -->|SSE/HTTP| H[Remote clients]