Overview
mcp-builder is an open-source frontend skill for Claude Code and compatible agents, published by anthropics. Its author describes it as: “Guide for creating high-quality MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers that enable LLMs to interact with external services through well-designed tools. Use when building MCP servers to integrate external APIs or service…”. The project has 177k stars on GitHub and ships custom license terms, so review them before reuse. Add it to your setup with `/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills`.
What mcp-builder does
Create MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers that enable LLMs to interact with external services through well-designed tools. The quality of an MCP server is measured by how well it enables LLMs to accomplish real-world tasks.
What’s inside
The SKILL.md for mcp-builder is organised into these sections:
- Overview
- 🚀 High-Level Workflow
- Phase 1: Deep Research and Planning
- Phase 2: Implementation
- Phase 3: Review and Test
- Phase 4: Create Evaluations
- 📚 Documentation Library
- Core MCP Documentation (Load First)
- SDK Documentation (Load During Phase 1/2)
- Language-Specific Implementation Guides (Load During Phase 2)
- Evaluation Guide (Load During Phase 4)
Installation
Add mcp-builder to your agent with:
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skillsReview a skill’s source before installing it — skills can instruct your agent to run commands. This command comes from the skill’s public repository, which is the source of truth for setup steps. New to skills? Read how to install Claude Code skills.
Supported agents
- Claude Code — ships a claude code plugin marketplace
License
anthropics has not declared a standard open-source license for this repository (Complete terms in LICENSE.txt). Confirm the terms with the author before reusing it.
Strengths
- Ships in anthropics/skills, an established project with 177,416 GitHub stars
- Works with Claude Code
- Actively maintained — repository updated in the last 30 days
- Its repository gained 12,054 GitHub stars over the last 52 days
Things to check
- No license declared — confirm terms with the author before reuse
Author
Topics
Alternatives to mcp-builder
Similar skills from other repositories:
Compare mcp-builder alternatives side by side →
Frequently asked questions
- What does mcp-builder do?
- Guide for creating high-quality MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers that enable LLMs to interact with external services through well-designed tools. Use when building MCP servers to integrate external APIs or services, whether in Python (FastMCP) or Node/TypeScript (MCP SDK).
- How do I install mcp-builder?
- Run /plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills in your agent, then reload your skills. Review the source at https://github.com/anthropics/skills before installing.
- Is mcp-builder free to use?
- mcp-builder is publicly available on GitHub, but anthropics has not declared a standard open-source license (Complete terms in LICENSE.txt). Confirm the terms with the author before reusing it.
- Which agents does mcp-builder work with?
- mcp-builder lists Claude Code — named in its SKILL.md, its plugin marketplace or its repository topics. Skills use the portable SKILL.md format, so other agents that read that format may load it too.
- Where does mcp-builder come from?
- mcp-builder ships inside anthropics/skills, a repository that contains 21 catalogued skills in total. The repository's 177,416 GitHub stars apply to that whole collection, not to this skill on its own.
