MCP Python SDK

The MCP Python SDK is the official Python implementation of the Model Context Protocol, MIT-licensed, requiring Python 3.10 or newer, and carrying roughly 23.9k stars and 3.8k forks. It covers both halves of the protocol. On the server side, decorated and type-hinted Python functions become MCP endpoints directly — the README's headline example is a server in fifteen lines where an @mcp.tool()-decorated `add(a: int, b: int) -> int` needs no hand-written JSON Schema, no validation code and no protocol plumbing. On the client side, a Client connects to a local in-process server, a stdio subprocess or a remote HTTP endpoint with the same API, giving you a client in about ten lines. Transports covered are stdio, Streamable HTTP and SSE. An optional `cli` extra installs the command-line tools — `mcp dev` opens a server in the MCP Inspector, `mcp run` executes one, and `mcp install` registers it with a host application — and a `rich` extra improves terminal output. Version history is the thing to check before you copy code: the package on PyPI reached 2.0.0 on 28 July 2026, a major rework tracking the 2026-07-28 MCP specification revision, while the 1.x line continues in maintenance (1.29.0 shipped the same day). The v2 rewrite reworked the protocol layer, moved protocol types out into a separate package and changed the low-level server's handler model, so 1.x tutorials do not translate cleanly. The SDK also has a lineage worth knowing: FastMCP 1.0 was the high-level API incorporated into this SDK in 2024, and the standalone FastMCP project continues separately on top of it.

Topic

MCP

Level

Intermediate

Format

Documentation

Cost

Free

Duration

Self-paced reference; the README quickstart is a 15-line server

Provider

Model Context Protocol

Hands-on

Yes — code/exercises

Certificate

None

• ✓Build an MCP server from type-hinted Python functions with no schema boilerplate
• ✓Expose tools, resources and prompts and have inputs validated automatically
• ✓Write an MCP client that connects to in-process, stdio or remote HTTP servers
• ✓Choose between stdio, Streamable HTTP and SSE transports for a deployment
• ✓Use the mcp CLI to run, inspect and install servers during development
• ✓Understand what changed in the v2 rework for the 2026-07-28 specification
• ✓Trace protocol behaviour against the reference implementation when a client misbehaves

• •The official implementation — the tiebreaker when a spec detail is ambiguous
• •Server and client in one package, so you can test both halves without a second dependency
• •v2.0.0 landed the same day as the 2026-07-28 spec revision, so it tracks the protocol closely
• •Ships CLI tooling (mcp dev/run/install) rather than leaving the dev loop to you
• •MIT-licensed with roughly 23.9k stars and 3.8k forks, so integration problems are well-trodden

This page was written from 3 sources, 2 on domains other than github.com.

1. 1.github.com — python sdkvendor
2. 2.pypi.org — mcp
3. 3.modelcontextprotocol.io — versioning