Client App Integrations

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is designed to be client-agnostic. Any MCP-compatible application can host your C++ server as long as they share a transport layer. This guide shows you how to connect your server to various clients and how to validate that it’s working correctly.

Validating Your Server

Before connecting to a complex desktop application, you should validate your server using simpler tools.

Using the MCP Inspector

The mcp-inspector is the official CLI tool for testing and debugging MCP servers. It provides a web-based UI to interact with your tools, resources, and prompts.

If you have Node.js installed, you can run it without installation:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector /path/to/your/build/examples/servers/stdio/example-server-stdio

The inspector will launch a local web server (usually at http://localhost:3000) where you can see your server’s capabilities and trigger its tools.

Using our Interactive Client

The SDK includes a built-in client template that you can use for quick validation directly from your terminal:

./build/example-interactive-client /path/to/your/build/examples/servers/stdio/example-server-stdio

This client will connect to your server, list its tools, and attempt to call the first available tool, providing an end-to-end “proof of life” for your transport and schema logic.

Desktop Client Integrations

Most desktop applications (like IDEs and AI interfaces) use the stdio transport to launch and communicate with MCP servers.

Claude Desktop

To use your C++ MCP server with Claude Desktop, add it to your claude_desktop_config.json file.

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-cpp-server": {
      "command": "/path/to/your/repo/build/examples/servers/stdio/example-server-stdio",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

IDE Plugins (e.g., Cursor, VSCode)

For IDEs that support MCP (like Cursor or VSCode via extensions), you can typically add a new “MCP Server” in the settings, specifying:

Type: command or stdio
Command: Absolute path to your compiled binary.
Args: Any necessary CLI flags (e.g., –llama-port=8080).

Troubleshooting Integrations

Absolute Paths: Most host applications require absolute paths to your server executable.
Environment Variables: If your server depends on specific environment variables (like PATH or API keys), ensure the host application’s configuration includes them.
Logs: If your server fails to start, check the host application’s logs for stderr output from your subprocess.