Building an MCP Server with FastMCP — 350-901 Study Guide

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Included in this chapter:

MCP: one protocol, any tool
Three primitives: tools act, resources read
Standing up a FastMCP server
Defining a tool: the decorator wires it up
Resources and prompts: read-only data and templates
Choosing a transport: stdio local, HTTP remote
Reading the stem: exam patterns and traps

MCP primitives: tool vs resource vs prompt

Aspect	Tool	Resource	Prompt
What it is	Model-invoked action	Read-only data source	Reusable message template
Who controls it	The model calls it	The application supplies it	The user selects it
Side effects	Possible (it acts)	None (GET-like read)	None (returns text)
FastMCP decorator	@mcp.tool	@mcp.resource("uri")	@mcp.prompt
JSON-RPC method	tools/call	resources/read	prompts/get
Net-automation example	get_interface_status()	device://{hostname}/status	troubleshoot_interface

Decision tree

Cheat sheet

Cheat sheet

MCP standardizes how agents connect to tools and data
MCP defines host, client, and server roles
MCP messages are JSON-RPC 2.0 over a transport
MCP servers expose tools, resources, and prompts
Create a FastMCP server object
mcp.run() starts the server on stdio by default
FastMCP registers capabilities via decorators, not a manifest
A FastMCP tool returns ordinary Python objects
FastMCP tools may be async
@mcp.tool registers a function as an agent tool
Tool name comes from the function, description from the docstring
Type hints generate the tool's input schema
A tool can request a Context parameter
Example: exposing device interface status as a tool
@mcp.resource exposes read-only data at a URI
Resources are read-only data; tools are invokable actions
Resource URI templates bind path segments to parameters
@mcp.prompt registers a reusable prompt template
stdio is the default local transport
Use HTTP transport for a remote server
Transport is selected at run time without changing tool code

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References