Build MCP Server QuickStart

Create your virtual environment

In your terminal, run the following command to create and activate a virtual environment:

uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate

Install the Arcade CLI

In your terminal, run the following command to install the arcade-mcp package:

uv pip install arcade-mcp

This package includes the CLI tools and the arcade-mcp-server library.

Create Your Server

In your terminal, run the following command to scaffold a new MCP Server called my_server:

arcade new my_server
cd my_server

This generates a complete project with:

• server.py Main server file with MCPApp and example tools
• pyproject.toml Dependencies and project configuration
• .env.example Example .env file containing a secret required by one of the generated tools in server.py

server.py includes proper structure with command-line argument handling. It creates an MCPApp with three sample tools:

• greet: This tool has a single argument, the name of the person to greet. It requires no secrets or auth
• whisper_secret: This tool requires no arguments, and will output the last 4 characters of a MY_SECRET_KEY secret.
• get_posts_in_subreddit: This tool has a single argument, a subreddit, and will return the latest posts on that subreddit, it requires the user to authenticate their reddit account.

If you’re having issues with the arcade command, please see the Troubleshooting section.

Setup the secrets in your environment

Secrets are sensitive strings like passwords, api-keys, or other tokens that grant access to a protected resource or API. Arcade includes the “whisper_secret” tool that requires a secret key to be set in your environment. If the secret is not set, the tool will return an error.

MY_SECRET_KEY="my-secret-value"

mv .env.example .env

export MY_SECRET_KEY="my-secret-value"

Connect to Arcade to enable authenticated tool calling

Since the Reddit tool accesses information only available to your Reddit account, you’ll need to authorize it. For this, you’ll need to create an Arcade account and connect to it from the terminal, run:

arcade login

Follow the instructions in your browser, and once you’ve finished, your terminal will be connected to your Arcade account.

Run your MCP Server

Run your MCP Server using one of the with the following commands in your terminal:

uv run server.py http

uv run server.py stdio

You should see output like this in your terminal:

INFO | Starting server v1.0.0 (my_server)
INFO | Added tool: greet
INFO | Starting MCP server on http://127.0.0.1:8000

Configure your MCP Client(s)

Now you can connect your MCP server to apps that support MCP Clients, like AI assistants and IDEs. :

arcade configure cursor --from-local

arcade configure vscode --from-local

arcade configure claude --from-local

Try it out!

Try calling your tool inside your assistant.

Here’s some prompts you can try:

• “What’s the latest post on r/mcp?”
• “What’s the last 4 characters of my secret key?”
• “Greet me as Supreme MCP Master”