MCP Rust CLI server template

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open protocol that enables seamless integration between LLM applicationsand external data sources and tools. Whether you’re building an AI-powered IDE, enhancing a chat interface,or creating custom AI workflows, MCP provides a standardized way to connect LLMs with the context they need.

mcp-rs-template is a simple application template that demonstrates how to implement MCP CLI server in Rust.

How to use template?

Clone the repository
Modify project information in Cargo.toml and src/mcp/mod.rs
Modify server handlers:
- src/mcp/prompts.rs: prompts handlers
- src/mcp/resources.rs: resources handlers
- src/mcp/tools.rs: tools handlers
Modify src/mcp/templates/*.json if you prefer to use json files for prompts, resources, and tools

mcp-rs-template is based on rust-rpc-router, a JSON-RPC routinglibrary for Rust.

CLI options

--mcp: Enable MCP server
--resources: display resources
--prompts: display prompts
--tools: display tools

How to use MCP CLI server in Claude Desktop?

Edit claude_desktop_config.json: Claude Desktop -> Settings -> Developer -> Edit Config
Add the following configuration to the servers section:

{
   "mcpServers": {
      "current-time": {
         "command": "mcp-rs-template",
         "args": [
            "--mcp"
         ],
         "env": {
            "API_KEY": "xxxx"
         }
      }
   }
}

If you want to check MCP log, please use tail -n 20 -f ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp*.log.

References

MCP Specification: https://spec.modelcontextprotocol.io/
Model Context Protocol (MCP): https://modelcontextprotocol.io/introduction
rpc-router: json-rpc routing library - https://github.com/jeremychone/rust-rpc-router/
Zed context_server: https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/tree/main/crates/context_server

MCP Rust CLI server template