Core Concepts

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is built on a few core primitives that allow servers to provide context and functionality to LLMs. This section covers how these primitives are implemented in the mcp-cpp-sdk.

• Tools
  • Basic Tool Registration
  • Typed Handlers
  • Async Handlers with Context
  • Error Handling
  • Tool Output Schema
  • Structured Content
  • See Also
• Resources
  • Static Resources
  • Resource Templates
  • Dynamic Resources
  • Resource Subscriptions
  • Resource Change Notifications
  • Resource Capabilities
  • Best Practices
• Prompts
  • Registering a Basic Prompt
  • Parameterized Prompts and Arguments
  • Structured Prompt Results
  • Advanced Registration
  • Prompt List Change Notifications
  • Prompt Capabilities
• Transports
  • Standard Transports
  • Stdio Transport (Local)
  • HTTP Transport (Network)
  • WebSocket Transport
  • MemoryTransport for Testing
  • TransportFactory and Runtime
  • Choosing the Right Transport
  • Custom Transports
• Middleware
  • Overview
  • Registering Middleware
  • Execution Order
  • Short-circuiting
  • Composition Patterns
  • Common Examples
  • Best Practices
  • See Also
• OAuth
  • Challenge-driven authorization
  • Protecting a server
  • Security boundary
  • Low-level building blocks
  • Example and current limits
  • Cross-references
• Server Context
  • Core Responsibilities
  • Lifecycle and Safety
  • Logging
  • Progress Reporting
  • Cancellation
  • Sampling (Reverse RPC)
  • Elicitation
  • Roots
  • Advanced: Context Internal Architecture
  • Best Practices
  • Cross-References
  • Summary
• Completions
  • Overview
  • Server-side Setup
  • CompleteParams
  • CompleteResult
  • Client-side Usage
  • Example Walkthrough
• Notifications and Subscriptions
  • Subscriptions Overview
  • Resource Subscriptions
  • Resource Change Notifications
  • List Change Notifications
  • Client-side Notification Handling
  • Example Walkthrough
  • Architecture of Notifications
  • Subscription State Management
  • Example Walkthrough
  • Advanced Notification Patterns
  • See Also
• Elicitation
  • Server-side Elicitation
  • Form-based Elicitation
  • URL-based Elicitation
  • Client-side Handling
  • ElicitResult Actions
  • Example Walkthrough
  • See Also
• Pagination
  • Server-side Configuration
  • Cursor-based Pagination
  • Client-side Handling
  • Automatic Pagination
  • Implementation Details
  • Client-side Example
  • Pagination Best Practices
  • See Also
• Roots
  • Roots Overview
  • Client-side Setup
  • Server-side Discovery
  • Handling Roots Requests
  • Roots Change Notifications
  • Example Walkthrough