zeromcp

Minimal MCP server implementation in pure Python.

A lightweight, handcrafted implementation of the Model Context Protocol focused on what most users actually need: exposing tools with clean Python type annotations.

Features

• ✨ Zero dependencies - Pure Python, standard library only
• 🎯 Type-safe - Native Python type annotations for everything
• 🚀 Fast - Minimal overhead, maximum performance
• 🛠️ Handcrafted - Written by a human¹, verified against the spec
• 🌐 HTTP/SSE transport - Streamable responses
• 📡 Stdio transport - For legacy clients
• 📦 Tiny - Less than 1,000 lines of code

Installation

pip install zeromcp

Or with uv:

uv add zeromcp

Quick Start

from typing import Annotated
from zeromcp import McpServer

mcp = McpServer("my-server")

@mcp.tool
def greet(
    name: Annotated[str, "Name to greet"],
    age: Annotated[int | None, "Age of person"] = None
) -> str:
    """Generate a greeting message"""
    if age:
        return f"Hello, {name}! You are {age} years old."
    return f"Hello, {name}!"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    mcp.serve("127.0.0.1", 8000)

Then manually test your MCP server with the inspector:

npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/inspector

Once things are working you can configure the mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-server": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://127.0.0.1/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Stdio Transport

For MCP clients that only support stdio transport:

from zeromcp import McpServer

mcp = McpServer("my-server")

@mcp.tool
def greet(name: str) -> str:
    """Generate a greeting"""
    return f"Hello, {name}!"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    mcp.stdio()

Then configure in mcp.json (different for every client):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-server": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["path/to/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Type Annotations

zeromcp uses native Python Annotated types for schema generation:

from typing import Annotated, Optional, TypedDict, NotRequired

class GreetingResponse(TypedDict):
    message: Annotated[str, "Greeting message"]
    name: Annotated[str, "Name that was greeted"]
    age: Annotated[NotRequired[int], "Age if provided"]

@mcp.tool
def greet(
    name: Annotated[str, "Name to greet"],
    age: Annotated[Optional[int], "Age of person"] = None
) -> GreetingResponse:
    """Generate a greeting message"""
    if age is not None:
        return {
            "message": f"Hello, {name}! You are {age} years old.",
            "name": name,
            "age": age
        }
    return {
        "message": f"Hello, {name}!",
        "name": name
    }

Union Types

Tools can accept multiple input types:

from typing import Annotated, TypedDict

class StructInfo(TypedDict):
    name: Annotated[str, "Structure name"]
    size: Annotated[int, "Structure size in bytes"]
    fields: Annotated[list[str], "List of field names"]

@mcp.tool
def struct_get(
    names: Annotated[list[str], "Array of structure names"]
         | Annotated[str, "Single structure name"]
) -> list[StructInfo]:
    """Retrieve structure information by names"""
    return [
        {
            "name": name,
            "size": 128,
            "fields": ["field1", "field2", "field3"]
        }
        for name in (names if isinstance(names, list) else [names])
    ]

Error Handling

from zeromcp import McpToolError

@mcp.tool
def divide(
    numerator: Annotated[float, "Numerator"],
    denominator: Annotated[float, "Denominator"]
) -> float:
    """Divide two numbers"""
    if denominator == 0:
        raise McpToolError("Division by zero")
    return numerator / denominator

Resources

Expose read-only data via URI patterns. Resources are serialized as JSON.

from typing import Annotated

@mcp.resource("file://data.txt")
def read_file() -> dict:
    """Get information about data.txt"""
    return {"name": "data.txt", "size": 1024}

@mcp.resource("file://{filename}")
def read_any_file(
    filename: Annotated[str, "Name of file to read"]
) -> dict:
    """Get information about any file"""
    return {"name": filename, "size": 2048}

Supported clients

The following clients have been tested:

• Claude Code
• Claude Desktop (stdio only)
• Visual Studio Code
• Roo Code / Cline / Kilo Code
• LM Studio
• Jan
• Gemini CLI
• Cursor
• Windsurf
• Zed (stdio only)
• Warp

Note: generally the /mcp endpoint is preferred, but not all clients support it correctly.

¹README and some of the tests written by Claude