Acme Operations Assistant (MCP demo)

A client-ready demo: an AI operations assistant for customer support and account managers, built on the Model Context Protocol.

Stack: MCP server → SQLite business data → OpenAI → Streamlit UI

Why this is a “real” project

• Business domain — customers, orders, support tickets (not hello world math)
• Persistent data — seeded SQLite database you can reset and extend
• Transparent tool calls — the UI shows exactly which MCP tools ran and what they returned
• Portable integration — the same MCP server works in Cursor, custom apps, or OpenAI Agents SDK

Quick start (client demo)

cd /apps/tmp/mcp-servers
python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[demo]"

export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
streamlit run demo_app.py

Open http://localhost:8501 and use the sidebar scenario buttons.

Full presenter script: DEMO.md

Project layout

File	Purpose
server.py	MCP server — 7 business tools over stdio
ops_db.py	SQLite schema + demo seed data
demo_app.py	Streamlit chat UI for presentations
assistant.py	OpenAI ↔ MCP bridge (shared by UI and CLI)
client.py	Smoke test MCP tools (no API key)
openai_chat.py	CLI assistant
openai_agent.py	Same flow via OpenAI Agents SDK

MCP tools

Tool	Description
search_customers	Search by name, id, email, industry
get_customer	Full customer profile
get_order	Order status + line items
list_customer_orders	Order history for a customer
list_open_tickets	Open support tickets
create_support_ticket	Create ticket (writes to DB)
account_summary	Executive snapshot for an account

Commands

# UI demo (recommended for clients)
streamlit run demo_app.py

# MCP smoke test — no OpenAI key
python client.py

# CLI assistant
python openai_chat.py "Account summary for CUST-1003"

# Reset demo database
python scripts/reset_demo_data.py

Connect to OpenAI (details)

The MCP server uses stdio. Your app must spawn it (as demo_app.py and assistant.py do).

• Chat Completions bridge: assistant.py / openai_chat.py
• Agents SDK: openai_agent.py — pip install -e ".[agents]"
• Responses API (remote URL): deploy server over HTTP; see OpenAI MCP guide

Cursor / Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "acme-operations": {
      "command": "/apps/tmp/mcp-servers/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["/apps/tmp/mcp-servers/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Next steps for production

1. Replace SQLite with CRM/ERP APIs behind the same tool names
2. Add auth (OAuth) per user and row-level access on tools
3. Require human approval for create_support_ticket in production
4. Deploy MCP over HTTP + host the Streamlit app behind SSO