ZeroMCP — Java

Sandboxed MCP server library for Java. Builder API, call server.serve(), done.

Getting started

import io.antidrift.zeromcp.*;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        var server = new ZeroMcp();

        server.tool("hello", Tool.builder()
            .description("Say hello to someone")
            .input(Input.required("name", "string", "The person's name"))
            .execute((a, ctx) -> "Hello, " + a.get("name") + "!")
            .build());

        server.serve();
    }
}

Stdio works immediately. No transport configuration needed.

vs. the official SDK

The official Java SDK (backed by Spring AI) requires server setup, transport configuration, and schema definition. ZeroMCP handles the protocol, transport, and schema generation with a clean builder API — no Spring framework required, just a JAR.

In benchmarks, ZeroMCP Java handles 11,168 requests/second over stdio versus the official SDK's 4,469 — 2.5x faster with 53% less memory (47 MB vs 99 MB). Over HTTP (Javalin), ZeroMCP serves 3,791 rps at 184-207 MB versus the official SDK's 2,658 rps at 203-217 MB.

Java passes all 10 conformance suites and survives 21/22 chaos monkey attacks.

The official SDK has no sandbox. ZeroMCP adds per-tool network allowlists, filesystem controls, and exec prevention.

HTTP / Streamable HTTP

ZeroMCP doesn't own the HTTP layer. You bring your own framework; ZeroMCP gives you a handleRequest method that takes a JsonObject and returns a JsonObject (or null for notifications).

// JsonObject response = server.handleRequest(request);

Javalin

import io.javalin.Javalin;
import com.google.gson.JsonParser;

var app = Javalin.create().start(4242);

app.post("/mcp", ctx -> {
    var request = JsonParser.parseString(ctx.body()).getAsJsonObject();
    var response = server.handleRequest(request);
    if (response == null) {
        ctx.status(204);
    } else {
        ctx.contentType("application/json").result(response.toString());
    }
});

Requirements

• Java 17+
• Maven

Build & run

mvn package -q -DskipTests
mvn dependency:copy-dependencies -DoutputDirectory=target/deps -q
javac -cp "target/zeromcp-0.1.0.jar:target/deps/*" -d /tmp/java-out example/src/main/java/Main.java
java -cp "target/zeromcp-0.1.0.jar:target/deps/*:/tmp/java-out" Main

Sandbox

Network allowlists

server.tool("fetch_url", Tool.builder()
    .description("Fetch a URL")
    .input(Input.required("url", "string"))
    .permissions(new Permissions(
        Permissions.NetworkPermission.allowList("api.example.com", "*.github.com"),
        Permissions.FsPermission.NONE,
        false  // exec
    ))
    .execute((a, ctx) -> {
        var url = (String) a.get("url");
        var host = java.net.URI.create(url).getHost();
        if (!Sandbox.checkNetworkAccess(ctx.toolName(), host, ctx.permissions())) {
            return "Network access denied for " + host;
        }
        return "Fetched: " + url;
    })
    .build());

Permission model

Sealed interface pattern for type-safe permissions:

• NetworkPermission.allowList(...) / .ALL / .DENIED
• FsPermission.READ / .WRITE / .NONE
• exec: true/false

Testing

mvn test