Local Development - MCP Blacksmith Docs

Running the server

After installing dependencies and configuring .env:

python server.py

By default, the server starts with stdio transport — the standard for local MCP connections.

Transport options

Select a transport at runtime:

# stdio (default) — for direct MCP client connections
python server.py

# SSE — for network-based connections
python server.py --transport sse --port 8000

# Streamable HTTP — newer HTTP-based transport
python server.py --transport streamable-http --port 8000

Transport	Use case
stdio	Local MCP clients (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor)
SSE	Remote or Docker-based deployments
streamable-http	Newer MCP clients that support HTTP streaming

Virtual environment

It’s recommended to use a virtual environment:

cd my-api-server
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate    # Linux/macOS
# .venv\Scripts\activate     # Windows
pip install -r requirements.txt
python server.py

Testing tools manually

Run the server and connect an MCP client to test individual tools. Try asking the AI agent to perform operations:

“List all users” “Create a new order for product X” “Get the status of order #123”

Check the server’s terminal output for request logs, errors, and validation warnings.

​Running the server

​Transport options

​Virtual environment

​Testing tools manually

Running the server

Transport options

Virtual environment

Testing tools manually