About MCP TS Quickstart
MCP TS Quickstart is a build-free TypeScript example for developers starting an MCP server with Node v23. It uses stdio and includes a tool for fetching Hacker News top stories.
Key features
- 01TypeScript MCP server example
- 02Runs on Node v23 without a build step
- 03stdio transport
- 04Hacker News top-stories tool
- 05MCP Inspector development workflow
Use cases
- 01Start a TypeScript MCP server project
- 02Inspect and restart a server during development
- 03Adapt the topStories tool for another use
MCP support
It implements an MCP server over stdio and exposes a tool that fetches Hacker News top stories. It can be configured for Claude Desktop and used with MCP Inspector.
Configuration
Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.
We haven’t collected a package or remote endpoint for this server. Follow the instructions in the project README.
Tools
Local servers expose tools only once running on your machine, and the maintainer has not provided a tool list.
Details
From the project READMEMCP TS Quickstart
This is a quickstart for MCP in TypeScript.
It includes a basic MCP server implementation that uses the stdio transport,
and fetches the top stories from Hacker News.
It is written in TypeScript and works without a build step by utilizing Node v23.
Based on the example provided in the MCP documentation.
Usage
The snippet below requires git, nvm, and pnpm.
git clone [email protected]:cephalization/mcp-ts-quickstart.git
cd mcp-ts-quickstart
nvm install && nvm use
pnpm install
Once cloned and dependencies installed, you can add this server to Claude Desktop with a config similar to the following:
{
"mcpServers": {
"hacker-news": {
"command": "/Users/tony/.nvm/versions/node/v23.6.0/bin/node",
"args": ["/Users/tony/repos/mcp/src/index.ts"]
}
}
}
See the MCP documentation for more information on how to use Claude Desktop as a client.
Development
The following commands will install the dependencies, and then start the MCP server with the MCP Inspector UI as a client.
nvm install && nvm use
pnpm install
pnpm start
Because the server is build-less, you can simply "restart" the server inside of the inspector UI by pressing the "Restart" button.
Extending the server
The server is implemented in src/index.ts.
The topStories tool is implemented in src/tools.ts.
To add a new tool, you can copy the topStories tool and modify it.
When importing local src files, make sure to use the .ts extension so that node can resolve it.
When importing types, make sure to add the type keyword in front of the import so that node can strip it out at runtime.
When importing libraries, make sure to import the actual source file extension, if it does not provide an exports mapping.
MCP Inspector
The MCP Inspector is a UI for interacting with MCP servers.
When run, it will be available at http://localhost:6274.
Comments
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