5. Production MCP Systems

Goal

Choose a deployment pattern.

Patterns

• Local stdio servers: excellent for desktop tools, developer workflows, and private local files.
• Remote servers: useful for team-shared integrations, managed auth, and centralized operations.
• Hybrid: local client with remote service backing.

Tradeoffs

Evaluate latency, availability, data locality, operational ownership, authentication, and update control.

Exercise

Pick a deployment model for three MCP use cases and justify each.

Goal

Test capabilities before connecting them to real users and production data.

Test layers

• Unit tests for handlers.
• Schema validation tests.
• Contract tests for tool/resource outputs.
• Golden conversations for expected model-tool behavior.
• Failure and permission simulations.
• Regression tests for changed schemas.

Assignment

Create a test matrix for your capstone MCP server.

Goal

Understand MCP behavior in production.

Instrument

• Structured logs for requests, results, and errors.
• Metrics for latency, volume, failures, and dependency health.
• Traces across host, server, and external APIs.
• Correlation IDs for sessions and tool calls.

Debugging loop

Reproduce the request, inspect tool inputs, verify permission decisions, check dependencies, and compare expected vs actual output.

Goal

Evolve MCP capabilities safely.

Versioning concerns

Changing a tool schema, description, resource format, or prompt can change model behavior. Treat these as contracts.

Practices

• Add optional fields before required fields.
• Deprecate rather than abruptly remove.
• Keep compatibility tests.
• Version prompts when behavior changes.
• Communicate migrations to client owners.

Exercise

Write a migration plan for renaming a tool parameter.

Goal

Package and operate an MCP server reliably.

Operational checklist

• Configuration separated by environment.
• Secrets stored in a secret manager.
• Health checks and startup validation.
• CI/CD pipeline with tests.
• Rollback plan.
• Dependency monitoring.
• Runbook for common incidents.

Assignment

Create a deployment plan for your capstone, including environments, secrets, monitoring, and rollback.

Goal

Design and build a production-ready MCP integration.

Choose one

• GitHub repository assistant.
• Customer support knowledge assistant.
• Sales CRM assistant.
• Internal analytics assistant.
• Developer documentation assistant.

Required deliverables

• MCP server with tools, resources, and prompts.
• External system integration or realistic mock.
• Auth and permission design.
• Error handling.
• Tests.
• Observability plan.
• Deployment plan.
• Security review.

Demo

Show a realistic user workflow, explain your safety decisions, and identify the next production hardening step.