go-sdk/docs/quick_start.md
Anton Dziatkovskii 71dfbc0d3e
docs: quick start go get leaves the module unbuildable (#1148)
### What was broken

`docs/quick_start.md` → *Installation* says:

```
go get github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk
```

The module root holds no importable package (only `copyright_test.go`),
so `go get` on the
module path records the requirement as `// indirect` and writes none of
the `go.sum` entries
the `mcp` package needs. A reader who runs that command and then pastes
the server snippet
from the next section hits six errors on the first build — before
writing a line of their own.

### How I checked

Followed the page verbatim on Go 1.26.4, in an empty directory:

```
$ go mod init example.com/qs
$ go get github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk
go: added github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk v1.7.0
```

`go.mod` now reads `require github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk
v1.7.0 // indirect`.
Then the two snippets from *Getting started*, saved as `server/main.go`
and `client/main.go`:

```
$ go build ./...
missing go.sum entry for module providing package github.com/google/jsonschema-go/jsonschema (imported by github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp)
missing go.sum entry for module providing package golang.org/x/oauth2 (imported by github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp)
missing go.sum entry for module providing package github.com/segmentio/encoding/json (imported by github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/internal/json)
missing go.sum entry for module providing package github.com/yosida95/uritemplate/v3 (imported by github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp)
missing go.sum entry for module providing package golang.org/x/sync/errgroup (imported by github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp)
missing go.sum entry for module providing package golang.org/x/time/rate (imported by github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp)
```

Same directory, same snippets, asking for the package instead:

```
$ go get github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp
$ go build -o myserver ./server && go build -o myclient ./client
$ ./myclient
{"greeting":"Hi you"}
```

`go mod tidy` after the fact fixes it too — that is the escape hatch the
note mentions,
but it is not what the page tells you to do.

### What it is now

```
go get github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp
```

plus four lines saying why the module path alone is not enough, so the
next person who
copies the module path from `go.mod` or from a search result knows what
they are looking at.

Change is in `internal/docs/quick_start.src.md`; `docs/quick_start.md`
regenerated with
`go generate ./internal/docs`, both committed together. Docs-only, no
code paths touched.

---
Assisted-by: Claude Opus 5 — this PR was drafted and verified by Anton's
AI cofounder running
on his account; every command and output above is from a real run on
this machine, not a
reconstruction.

---------

Co-authored-by: Palo-Alto-AI-Research-Lab <Palo-Alto-AI-Research-Lab@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-06 16:27:46 +02:00

2.5 KiB

Quick Start

  1. Installation
  2. Getting started

Installation

go get github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp

Getting started

To get started creating an MCP server, create an mcp.Server instance, add features to it, and then run it over an mcp.Transport. For example, this server adds a single simple tool, and then connects it to clients over stdin/stdout:

package main

import (
	"context"
	"log"

	"github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp"
)

type Input struct {
	Name string `json:"name" jsonschema:"the name of the person to greet"`
}

type Output struct {
	Greeting string `json:"greeting" jsonschema:"the greeting to tell to the user"`
}

func SayHi(ctx context.Context, req *mcp.CallToolRequest, input Input) (
	*mcp.CallToolResult,
	Output,
	error,
) {
	return nil, Output{Greeting: "Hi " + input.Name}, nil
}

func main() {
	// Create a server with a single tool.
	server := mcp.NewServer(&mcp.Implementation{Name: "greeter", Version: "v1.0.0"}, nil)
	mcp.AddTool(server, &mcp.Tool{Name: "greet", Description: "say hi"}, SayHi)
	// Run the server over stdin/stdout, until the client disconnects.
	if err := server.Run(context.Background(), &mcp.StdioTransport{}); err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
}

To communicate with that server, create an mcp.Client and connect it to the corresponding server, by running the server command and communicating over its stdin/stdout:

package main

import (
	"context"
	"log"
	"os/exec"

	"github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp"
)

func main() {
	ctx := context.Background()

	// Create a new client, with no features.
	client := mcp.NewClient(&mcp.Implementation{Name: "mcp-client", Version: "v1.0.0"}, nil)

	// Connect to a server over stdin/stdout.
	transport := &mcp.CommandTransport{Command: exec.Command("myserver")}
	session, err := client.Connect(ctx, transport, nil)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	defer session.Close()

	// Call a tool on the server.
	params := &mcp.CallToolParams{
		Name:      "greet",
		Arguments: map[string]any{"name": "you"},
	}
	res, err := session.CallTool(ctx, params)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("CallTool failed: %v", err)
	}
	if res.IsError {
		log.Fatal("tool failed")
	}
	for _, c := range res.Content {
		log.Print(c.(*mcp.TextContent).Text)
	}
}

The examples/ directory contains more example clients and servers.