MCP Chat

MCP Chat is a command-line interface application that enables interactive chat capabilities with AI models through the Anthropic API. The application supports document retrieval, command-based prompts, and extensible tool integrations via the MCP (Model Control Protocol) architecture.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9+
• Anthropic API Key

Setup

Step 1: Configure the environment variables

1. Create or edit the .env file in the project root and verify that the following variables are set correctly:

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=""  # Enter your Anthropic API secret key

Step 2: Install dependencies

Option 1: Setup with uv (Recommended)

uv is a fast Python package installer and resolver.

1. Install uv, if not already installed:

pip install uv

2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies:

uv sync

This installs runtime dependencies and the dev group (pytest, pytest-asyncio).

4. Run the project

uv run main.py

Option 2: Setup without uv

1. Create and activate a virtual environment:

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

2. Install dependencies:

pip install anthropic python-dotenv prompt-toolkit "mcp[cli]==1.8.0"
pip install pytest pytest-asyncio  # optional, for running tests

3. Run the project

python main.py

Usage

Basic Interaction

Simply type your message and press Enter to chat with the model.

Document Retrieval

Use the @ symbol followed by a document ID to include document content in your query:

> Tell me about @deposition.md

Commands

Use the / prefix to execute commands defined in the MCP server:

> /summarize deposition.md

Commands will auto-complete when you press Tab.

MCP Server

The bundled mcp_server.py exposes the in-memory docs dictionary to MCP clients via:

• Tools
  • read_doc_contents(doc_id) — return the contents of a document.
  • edit_document(doc_id, old_str, new_str) — replace old_str with new_str in a document.
• Resources
  • docs://documents — JSON list of all document IDs.
  • docs://documents/{doc_id} — contents of a single document.
• Prompts
  • format(doc_id) — rewrite a document in markdown format.
  • summarize(doc_id) — produce a concise summary of a document.

Development

Adding New Documents

Edit the mcp_server.py file to add new documents to the docs dictionary.

Testing

Tests live in tests/ and use pytest with pytest-asyncio (auto mode).

• tests/test_mcp_server.py exercises the server in-process against the FastMCP instance.
• tests/test_mcp_client.py spawns the server as a subprocess and exercises MCPClient end-to-end.

Run the suite with:

uv run pytest

Linting and Typing Check

There are no lint or type checks implemented.