mcp-ts-core

What is this?

@cyanheads/mcp-ts-core is the infrastructure layer for TypeScript MCP servers. Install it as a dependency — don't fork it. Your agent collaborates with you to design and build the tools, resources, and prompts for your server.

The framework handles the plumbing: transports, auth, config, logging, telemetry, & more. Define your domain logic with the builders and let the framework take care of the rest.

import { createApp, tool, z } from '@cyanheads/mcp-ts-core';
import { JsonRpcErrorCode } from '@cyanheads/mcp-ts-core/errors';

const search = tool('search', {
  description: 'Search the catalog and return ranked matches.',
  annotations: { readOnlyHint: true },
  input: z.object({
    query: z.string().describe('Search terms'),
    limit: z.number().default(10).describe('Max results'),
  }),
  output: z.object({
    items: z.array(z.string()).describe('Matching item names, best first'),
  }),
  enrichment: {
    effectiveQuery: z.string().describe('Query as the server parsed it'),
    totalCount: z.number().describe('Total matches before the limit'),
    notice: z.string().optional().describe('Guidance when nothing matched'),
  },
  errors: [
    {
      reason: 'index_unavailable',
      code: JsonRpcErrorCode.ServiceUnavailable,
      when: 'The upstream search index is unreachable.',
      retryable: true,
      recovery: 'Retry in a few seconds — the index may be briefly unavailable.',
    },
  ],
  handler: async (input, ctx) => {
    const res = await runSearch(input.query, input.limit);
    if (!res) throw ctx.fail('index_unavailable'); // genuine failure → typed error contract
    ctx.enrich({ effectiveQuery: res.parsed, totalCount: res.total });
    if (res.items.length === 0) {
      ctx.enrich({ notice: `No matches for "${input.query}". Try broader terms.` }); // empty result → notice, not a throw
    }
    return { items: res.items }; // enrichment never rides in the domain return
  },
});

await createApp({ tools: [search] });

That's a complete MCP server, showing both flagship contracts. enrichment carries the context an agent reasons with — the parsed query, the true total, an empty-result notice — which the framework merges into structuredContent and mirrors into content[], so structuredContent-only clients (Claude Code) and content[]-only clients (Claude Desktop) both see it, no format() needed. The typed errors[] contract handles genuine failures (an empty result is a notice, not a throw). The linter cross-checks both against the handler body, and both publish in tools/list so clients preview a tool's success and failure shapes. Every tool call is automatically logged with duration, payload sizes, and request correlation — no instrumentation code needed; createApp() handles config parsing, logger init, transport startup, signal handlers, and graceful shutdown.

Quick start

bunx @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core init my-mcp-server
cd my-mcp-server
bun install

You get a scaffolded project with CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md, Agent Skills, plugin metadata (Codex + Claude Code), and a src/ tree ready for your tools. Infrastructure — transports, auth, storage, telemetry, lifecycle, linting — lives in node_modules. What's left is domain: which APIs to wrap, which workflows to expose.

Start your coding agent (i.e. Claude Code, Codex) and describe what you want. The agent knows what to do from there. The included Agent Skills cover the full cycle: setup, design-mcp-server, scaffolding, testing, security-pass, release-and-publish, maintenance, & more.

What you get

The headline tool returns structured output — clients that read structuredContent (Claude Code) get it directly. To also render markdown for clients that read content[] (Claude Desktop), add a format(). The format-parity linter checks it renders every output field, so the two surfaces never drift:

import { tool, z } from '@cyanheads/mcp-ts-core';

export const itemSearch = tool('item_search', {
  description: 'Search for items by query.',
  input: z.object({
    query: z.string().describe('Search query'),
    limit: z.number().default(10).describe('Max results'),
  }),
  output: z.object({
    items: z.array(z.string()).describe('Search results'),
  }),
  async handler(input) {
    const results = await doSearch(input.query, input.limit);
    return { items: results };
  },
  format: (result) => [
    { type: 'text', text: result.items.map((name) => `- ${name}`).join('\n') },
  ],
});

And resources:

import { resource, z } from '@cyanheads/mcp-ts-core';

export const itemData = resource('items://{itemId}', {
  description: 'Retrieve item data by ID.',
  params: z.object({
    itemId: z.string().describe('Item ID'),
  }),
  async handler(params, ctx) {
    return await getItem(params.itemId);
  },
});

Everything registers through createApp() in your entry point:

await createApp({
  name: 'my-mcp-server',
  version: '0.1.0',
  tools: allToolDefinitions,
  resources: allResourceDefinitions,
  prompts: allPromptDefinitions,
  instructions: 'Brief composition hints for the model.', // optional, sent on every `initialize`
});

It also works on Cloudflare Workers with createWorkerHandler() — same definitions, different entry point.

Features

• Declarative definitions — tool(), resource(), prompt() builders with Zod schemas; appTool()/appResource() add interactive HTML UIs.
• Server-level orientation — instructions on createApp/createWorkerHandler rides every initialize for the model. Cross-tool composition hints, regional notes, scope guidance — without leaking text into every tool description.
• Server identity — optional title, websiteUrl, description, icons (SEP-973) on createApp/createWorkerHandler flow to initialize serverInfo, the /.well-known/mcp.json server card, and the landing page.
• Unified Context — one ctx for logging, tenant-scoped storage, elicitation, cancellation, and task progress.
• Auth — auth: ['scope'] on definitions, checked before dispatch (no wrapper code). Modes: none, jwt, or oauth (local secret or JWKS).
• Task tools — task: true for long-running ops; framework manages create/poll/progress/complete/cancel.
• Definition linter — validates names, schemas, auth scopes, annotations, format-parity, and cross-vendor JSON Schema portability at build time. Run via lint:mcp or devcheck — not invoked at server startup.
• Typed error contracts — declare errors: [{ reason, code, when, recovery, retryable? }] and handlers get a typed ctx.fail(reason, …). Contracts publish in tools/list so clients preview failure modes; the linter cross-checks the handler. Factories (notFound(), httpErrorFromResponse(), …) cover ad-hoc throws; plain Error auto-classifies.
• Multi-backend storage — in-memory, filesystem, Supabase, Cloudflare D1/KV/R2. Swap via env var; handlers don't change.
• DataCanvas (optional) — Tier 3 SQL/analytical workspace backed by DuckDB. Register tabular data from upstream APIs, run SQL across registered tables, export CSV/Parquet/JSON. Token-sharing model (opaque canvas_id) for multi-agent collaboration; sliding TTL + per-tenant scoping. Opt-in via CANVAS_PROVIDER_TYPE=duckdb; fails closed on Workers.
• Observability — Pino logging + optional OpenTelemetry traces/metrics. Request correlation and tool metrics automatic.
• Tiered dependencies — parsers, OTEL SDK, Supabase, OpenAI as optional peers. Install what you use.
• Agent-first DX — ships CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md and Agent Skills that give your coding agent full framework knowledge — it can scaffold tools, write tests, run security audits, and ship releases without you writing the boilerplate.

Server structure

my-mcp-server/
  src/
    index.ts                              # createApp() entry point
    worker.ts                             # createWorkerHandler() (optional)
    config/
      server-config.ts                    # Server-specific env vars
    services/
      [domain]/                           # Domain services (init/accessor pattern)
    mcp-server/
      tools/definitions/                  # Tool definitions (.tool.ts)
      resources/definitions/              # Resource definitions (.resource.ts)
      prompts/definitions/                # Prompt definitions (.prompt.ts)
  package.json
  tsconfig.json                           # extends @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core/tsconfig.base.json
  CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md                   # Point to core's CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md for framework docs

No src/utils/, no src/storage/, no src/types-global/,