php-sdk/docs/server-builder.md

Server Builder

The server Builder is a fluent builder class that simplifies the creation and configuration of an MCP server instance. It provides methods for setting server information, configuring discovery, registering capabilities, and customizing various aspects of the server behavior.

Table of Contents

• Basic Usage
• Server Configuration
• Discovery Configuration
• Session Management
• Manual Capability Registration
• Service Dependencies
• Custom Message Handlers
• Complete Example
• Method Reference

Basic Usage

There are two ways to obtain a server builder instance:

Method 1: Static Builder Method (Recommended)

use Mcp\Server;

$server = Server::builder()
    ->setServerInfo('My MCP Server', '1.0.0')
    ->setDiscovery(__DIR__, ['.'])
    ->build();

Method 2: Direct Instantiation

use Mcp\Server\Builder;

$server = (new Builder())
    ->setServerInfo('My MCP Server', '1.0.0')
    ->setDiscovery(__DIR__, ['.'])
    ->build();

Both methods return a Builder instance that you can configure with fluent methods. The build() method returns the final Server instance ready for use.

Server Configuration

Server Information

Set the server's identity with name, version, and optional description:

use Mcp\Schema\Icon;
use Mcp\Server;

$server = Server::builder()
    ->setServerInfo(
        name: 'Calculator Server',
        version: '1.2.0',
        description: 'Advanced mathematical calculations',
        icons: [new Icon('https://example.com/icon.png', 'image/png', ['64x64'])],
        websiteUrl: 'https://example.com'
    ');

Parameters:

• $name (string): The server name
• $version (string): Version string (semantic versioning recommended)
• $description (string|null): Optional description
• $icons (Icon[]|null): Optional array of server icons
• $websiteUrl (string|null): Optional server website URL

Pagination Limit

Configure the maximum number of items returned in paginated responses:

$server = Server::builder()
    ->setPaginationLimit(100); // Default: 50

Instructions

Provide hints to help AI models understand how to use your server:

$server = Server::builder()
    ->setInstructions('This calculator supports basic arithmetic operations. Use the calculate tool for math operations and check the config resource for current settings.');

Discovery Configuration

Required when using MCP attributes. If you're using PHP attributes (#[McpTool], #[McpResource], #[McpResourceTemplate], #[McpPrompt]) to define your MCP elements, you MUST configure discovery to tell the server where to look for these attributes.

$server = Server::builder()
    ->setDiscovery(
        basePath: __DIR__,
        scanDirs: ['.', 'src', 'lib'],           // Where to look for MCP attributes
        excludeDirs: ['vendor', 'tests'],        // Where NOT to look
        cache: $cacheInstance,                   // Optional: cache discovered elements
        namePatterns: ['*.php', '*.inc'],        // Optional: list of filename patterns to match
    );

Parameters:

• $basePath (string): Base directory for discovery (typically __DIR__)
• $scanDirs (array): Directories to recursively scan for #[McpTool], #[McpResource], etc. All subdirectories are included. (default: ['.', 'src'])
• $excludeDirs (array): Directory names to exclude within the scanned directories during recursive scanning
• $cache (CacheInterface|null): Optional PSR-16 cache to store discovered elements for performance
• $namePatterns (array): Optional list of patterns (regexp, glob, or string) for file names (default: ['*.php'])

Basic Discovery (scans current directory and src/):

$server = Server::builder()
    ->setDiscovery(__DIR__)  // Minimal setup
    ->build();

Production Setup with Caching:

use Symfony\Component\Cache\Adapter\FilesystemAdapter;
use Symfony\Component\Cache\Psr16Cache;

// Cache discovered elements to avoid filesystem scanning on every server start
$cache = new Psr16Cache(new FilesystemAdapter('mcp-discovery'));

$server = Server::builder()
    ->setDiscovery(
        basePath: __DIR__,
        scanDirs: ['src', 'lib'],                    // Scan these directories recursively
        excludeDirs: ['vendor', 'tests', 'temp'],    // Skip these directory names within scanned dirs
        cache: $cache                                // Cache for performance
    )
    ->build();

How excludeDirs works:

• If scanning src/ and there's src/vendor/, it will be excluded
• If scanning lib/ and there's lib/tests/, it will be excluded
• But if vendor/ and tests/ are at the same level as src/, they're not scanned anyway (not in scanDirs)

Performance: Always use a cache in production. The first run scans and caches all discovered MCP elements, making subsequent server startups nearly instantaneous.

Session Management

Configure session storage and lifecycle. By default, the SDK uses InMemorySessionStore:

use Mcp\Server\Session\FileSessionStore;
use Mcp\Server\Session\InMemorySessionStore;
use Mcp\Server\Session\Psr16SessionStore;
use Symfony\Component\Cache\Psr16Cache;
use Symfony\Component\Cache\Adapter\RedisAdapter;

// Override with file-based storage
$server = Server::builder()
    ->setSession(new FileSessionStore(__DIR__ . '/sessions'))
    ->build();

// Override with in-memory storage and custom TTL
$server = Server::builder()
    ->setSession(new InMemorySessionStore(3600))
    ->build();

// Override with PSR-16 cache-based storage
// Requires psr/simple-cache and symfony/cache (or any other PSR-16 implementation)
// composer require psr/simple-cache symfony/cache
$redisAdapter = new RedisAdapter(
    RedisAdapter::createConnection('redis://localhost:6379'),
    'mcp_sessions'
);

$server = Server::builder()
    ->setSession(new Psr16SessionStore(
        cache: new Psr16Cache($redisAdapter),
        prefix: 'mcp-',
        ttl: 3600
    ))
    ->build();

Garbage Collection Configuration

The SDK periodically runs garbage collection to clean up expired sessions, similar to PHP's native session.gc_probability and session.gc_divisor settings. The probability that GC runs on any given request is gcProbability / gcDivisor.

// Default: 1/100 (1% chance per request)
$server = Server::builder()
    ->setSession(new FileSessionStore(__DIR__ . '/sessions'))
    ->build();

// Higher frequency: 1/10 (10% chance per request)
$server = Server::builder()
    ->setSession(
        new FileSessionStore(__DIR__ . '/sessions'),
        gcProbability: 1,
        gcDivisor: 10,
    )
    ->build();

// Run GC on every request
$server = Server::builder()
    ->setSession(gcProbability: 1, gcDivisor: 1)
    ->build();

// Disable GC entirely (e.g. when using an external cleanup process)
$server = Server::builder()
    ->setSession(gcProbability: 0)
    ->build();

Parameters:

• $gcProbability (int): The numerator of the GC probability fraction (default: 1). Set to 0 to disable GC.
• $gcDivisor (int): The denominator of the GC probability fraction (default: 100). Must be >= 1.

Note

: When providing a custom SessionManagerInterface via the $sessionManager parameter, the gcProbability and gcDivisor settings are ignored — you control GC behavior in your own implementation.

Available Session Stores:

• InMemorySessionStore: Fast in-memory storage (default)
• FileSessionStore: Persistent file-based storage
• Psr16StoreSession: PSR-16 compliant cache-based storage

Custom Session Stores:

Implement SessionStoreInterface to create custom session storage:

use Mcp\Server\Session\SessionStoreInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Uid\Uuid;

class RedisSessionStore implements SessionStoreInterface
{
    public function __construct(private $redis, private int $ttl = 3600) {}

    public function exists(Uuid $id): bool
    {
        return $this->redis->exists($id->toRfc4122());
    }

    public function read(Uuid $sessionId): string|false
    {
        $data = $this->redis->get($sessionId->toRfc4122());
        return $data !== false ? $data : false;
    }

    public function write(Uuid $sessionId, string $data): bool
    {
        return $this->redis->setex($sessionId->toRfc4122(), $this->ttl, $data);
    }

    public function destroy(Uuid $sessionId): bool
    {
        return $this->redis->del($sessionId->toRfc4122()) > 0;
    }

    public function gc(): array
    {
        // Redis handles TTL automatically
        return [];
    }
}

Manual Capability Registration

Register MCP elements programmatically without using attributes. The handler is the most important parameter and can be any PHP callable.

Handler Types

Handler can be any PHP callable:

1. Closure: function(int $a, int $b): int { return $a + $b; }
2. Class and method name pair: [ClassName::class, 'methodName'] - class must be constructable through the container
3. Class instance and method name: [$instance, 'methodName']
4. Invokable class name: InvokableClass::class - class must be constructable through the container and have __invoke method

Manual Tool Registration

$server = Server::builder()
    // Using closure
    ->addTool(
        handler: function(int $a, int $b): int { return $a + $b; },
        name: 'add_numbers',
        description: 'Adds two numbers together'
    )

    // Using class method pair
    ->addTool(
        handler: [Calculator::class, 'multiply'],
        name: 'multiply_numbers'
        // name and description are optional - derived from method name and docblock
    )

    // Using instance method
    ->addTool(
        handler: [$calculatorInstance, 'divide']
    )

    // Using invokable class
    ->addTool(
        handler: InvokableCalculator::class
    );

Parameters

• handler (callable|string): The tool handler
• name (string|null): Optional tool name
• title (string|null): Optional human-readable title for display in UI
• description (string|null): Optional tool description
• annotations (ToolAnnotations|null): Optional annotations for the tool
• inputSchema (array|null): Optional input schema for the tool
• icons (Icon[]|null): Optional array of icons for the tool
• meta (array|null): Optional metadata for the tool

Manual Resource Registration

Register static resources:

$server = Server::builder()
    ->addResource(
        handler: [Config::class, 'getSettings'],
        uri: 'config://app/settings',
        name: 'app_config',
        description: 'Application configuration',
        mimeType: 'application/json'
    );

Parameters

• handler (callable|string): The resource handler
• uri (string): The resource URI
• name (string|null): Optional resource name
• description (string|null): Optional resource description
• mimeType (string|null): Optional MIME type of the resource
• size (int|null): Optional size of the resource in bytes
• annotations (Annotations|null): Optional annotations for the resource
• icons (Icon[]|null): Optional array of icons for the resource
• meta (array|null): Optional metadata for the resource

Manual Resource Template Registration

Register dynamic resources with URI templates:

$server = Server::builder()
    ->addResourceTemplate(
        handler: [UserService::class, 'getUserProfile'],
        uriTemplate: 'user://{userId}/profile',
        name: 'user_profile',
        description: 'User profile by ID',
        mimeType: 'application/json'
    );

Parameters

• handler (callable|string): The resource template handler
• uriTemplate (string): The resource URI template
• name (string|null): Optional resource template name
• description (string|null): Optional resource template description
• mimeType (string|null): Optional MIME type of the resource
• annotations (Annotations|null): Optional annotations for the resource template

Manual Prompt Registration

Register prompt generators:

$server = Server::builder()
    ->addPrompt(
        handler: [PromptService::class, 'generatePrompt'],
        name: 'custom_prompt',
        description: 'A custom prompt generator'
    );

Parameters

• handler (callable|string): The prompt handler
• name (string|null): Optional prompt name
• title (string|null): Optional human-readable title for display in UI
• description (string|null): Optional prompt description
• icons (Icon[]|null): Optional array of icons for the prompt

Note: name and description are optional for all manual registrations. If not provided, they will be derived from the handler's method name and docblock.

For more details on MCP elements, handlers, and attribute-based discovery, see MCP Elements.

Explicit element registration

When an element's name, schema, or description is only known at runtime, pair an Mcp\Schema\* value object with one of the four handler interfaces below and register it through Builder::add().

Element kind	Handler interface
Tool	Mcp\Server\Handler\ToolHandlerInterface
Resource	Mcp\Server\Handler\ResourceHandlerInterface
Resource template	Mcp\Server\Handler\ResourceTemplateHandlerInterface
Prompt	Mcp\Server\Handler\PromptHandlerInterface

Each handler interface declares a single execution method. Tool and prompt handlers receive an arguments map and a ClientGateway. Resource handlers receive the requested URI; resource template handlers additionally receive the parsed template variables.

use Mcp\Schema\Tool;
use Mcp\Server;
use Mcp\Server\ClientGateway;
use Mcp\Server\Handler\ToolHandlerInterface;

final class WeatherHandler implements ToolHandlerInterface
{
    public function execute(array $arguments, ClientGateway $gateway): mixed
    {
        return ['temperature' => 21, 'unit' => 'C'];
    }
}

$tool = new Tool(
    name: 'get_weather',
    title: null,
    inputSchema: [
        'type' => 'object',
        'properties' => ['city' => ['type' => 'string']],
        'required' => ['city'],
    ],
    description: 'Returns the current weather for a city.',
    annotations: null,
);

$server = Server::builder()
    ->add($tool, new WeatherHandler())
    ->build();

Builder::add() validates the pairing at registration time. Pairing a Tool definition with, for example, a PromptHandlerInterface raises Mcp\Exception\InvalidArgumentException. The schema value object validates its own inputs (name pattern, schema shape, etc.), so passing an incomplete definition fails before add() returns.

Use add() when the metadata cannot be inferred from a handler class via reflection. For statically-known elements, prefer addTool/addResource/addResourceTemplate/addPrompt, which can derive metadata from the handler's signature and docblock.

Service Dependencies

Container

The container is used to resolve handlers and their dependencies when handlers inject dependencies in their constructors. The SDK includes a basic container with simple auto-wiring capabilities.

use Mcp\Capability\Registry\Container;

// Use the default basic container
$container = new Container();
$container->set(DatabaseService::class, new DatabaseService($pdo));
$container->set(\PDO::class, $pdo);

$server = Server::builder()
    ->setContainer($container)
    ->build();

Basic Container Features:

• Supports constructor auto-wiring for classes with parameterless constructors
• Resolves dependencies where all parameters are type-hinted classes/interfaces known to the container
• Supports parameters with default values
• Does NOT support scalar/built-in type injection without defaults
• Detects circular dependencies

You can also use any PSR-11 compatible container (Symfony DI, PHP-DI, Laravel Container, etc.).

Logger

Provide a PSR-3 logger instance for internal server logging (request/response processing, errors, session management, transport events):

use Monolog\Logger;
use Monolog\Handler\StreamHandler;

$logger = new Logger('mcp-server');
$logger->pushHandler(new StreamHandler('mcp.log', Logger::INFO));

$server = Server::builder()
    ->setLogger($logger);

Event Dispatcher

Configure event dispatching:

$server = Server::builder()
    ->setEventDispatcher($eventDispatcher);

Custom Message Handlers

Low-level escape hatch. Custom message handlers run before the SDK's built-in handlers and give you total control over individual JSON-RPC messages. They do not receive the builder's registry, container, or discovery output unless you pass those dependencies in yourself.

Warning

: Custom message handlers bypass discovery, manual capability registration, and container lookups (unless you explicitly pass them). Tools, resources, and prompts you register elsewhere will not show up unless your handler loads and executes them manually. Reach for this API only when you need that level of control and are comfortable taking on the additional plumbing.

Request Handlers

Handle JSON-RPC requests (messages with an id that expect a response). Request handlers must return either a Response or an Error object.

Attach request handlers with addRequestHandler() (single) or addRequestHandlers() (multiple). You can call these methods as many times as needed; each call prepends the handlers so they execute before the defaults:

$server = Server::builder()
    ->addRequestHandler(new CustomListToolsHandler())
    ->addRequestHandlers([
        new CustomCallToolHandler(),
        new CustomGetPromptHandler(),
    ])
    ->build();

Request handlers implement RequestHandlerInterface:

use Mcp\Schema\JsonRpc\Error;
use Mcp\Schema\JsonRpc\Request;
use Mcp\Schema\JsonRpc\Response;
use Mcp\Server\Handler\Request\RequestHandlerInterface;
use Mcp\Server\Session\SessionInterface;

interface RequestHandlerInterface
{
    public function supports(Request $request): bool;

    public function handle(Request $request, SessionInterface $session): Response|Error;
}

• supports() decides if the handler should process the incoming request
• handle() must return a Response (on success) or an Error (on failure)

Notification Handlers

Handle JSON-RPC notifications (messages without an id that don't expect a response). Notification handlers do not return anything - they perform side effects only.

Attach notification handlers with addNotificationHandler() (single) or addNotificationHandlers() (multiple):

$server = Server::builder()
    ->addNotificationHandler(new LoggingNotificationHandler())
    ->addNotificationHandlers([
        new InitializedNotificationHandler(),
        new ProgressNotificationHandler(),
    ])
    ->build();

Notification handlers implement NotificationHandlerInterface:

use Mcp\Schema\JsonRpc\Notification;
use Mcp\Server\Handler\Notification\NotificationHandlerInterface;
use Mcp\Server\Session\SessionInterface;

interface NotificationHandlerInterface
{
    public function supports(Notification $notification): bool;

    public function handle(Notification $notification, SessionInterface $session): void;
}

• supports() decides if the handler should process the incoming notification
• handle() performs side effects but does not return a value (notifications have no response)

Key Differences

Handler Type	Interface	Returns	Use Case
Request Handler	RequestHandlerInterface	Response|Error	Handle requests that need responses (e.g., tools/list, tools/call)
Notification Handler	NotificationHandlerInterface	void	Handle fire-and-forget notifications (e.g., notifications/initialized, notifications/progress)

Example

Check out examples/custom-method-handlers/server.php for a complete example showing how to implement custom tools/list and tools/call request handlers independently of the registry.

Complete Example

Here's a comprehensive example showing all major configuration options:

use Mcp\Server;
use Mcp\Server\Session\FileSessionStore;
use Mcp\Capability\Registry\Container;
use Symfony\Component\Cache\Adapter\FilesystemAdapter;
use Symfony\Component\Cache\Psr16Cache;
use Monolog\Logger;
use Monolog\Handler\StreamHandler;

// Setup dependencies
$logger = new Logger('mcp-server');
$logger->pushHandler(new StreamHandler('mcp.log', Logger::INFO));

$cache = new Psr16Cache(new FilesystemAdapter('mcp-discovery'));
$sessionStore = new FileSessionStore(__DIR__ . '/sessions');

// Setup container with dependencies
$container = new Container();
$container->set(\PDO::class, new \PDO('sqlite::memory:'));
$container->set(DatabaseService::class, new DatabaseService($container->get(\PDO::class)));

// Build server
$server = Server::builder()
    // Server identity
    ->setServerInfo('Advanced Calculator', '2.1.0')

    // Performance and behavior
    ->setPaginationLimit(100)
    ->setInstructions('Use calculate tool for math operations. Check config resource for current settings.')

    // Discovery with caching
    ->setDiscovery(__DIR__, ['src'], ['vendor', 'tests'], $cache)

    // Session management
    ->setSession($sessionStore)

    // Services
    ->setLogger($logger)
    ->setContainer($container)

    // Manual capability registration
    ->addTool([Calculator::class, 'advancedCalculation'], 'advanced_calc')
    ->addResource([Config::class, 'getSettings'], 'config://app/settings', 'app_settings')

    // Build the server
    ->build();

Method Reference

Method	Parameters	Description
setServerInfo()	name, version, description?	Set server identity
setPaginationLimit()	limit	Set max items per page
setInstructions()	instructions	Set usage instructions
setDiscovery()	basePath, scanDirs?, excludeDirs?, cache?	Configure attribute discovery
setSession()	sessionStore?, sessionManager?, gcProbability?, gcDivisor?	Configure session management
setLogger()	logger	Set PSR-3 logger
setContainer()	container	Set PSR-11 container
setEventDispatcher()	dispatcher	Set PSR-14 event dispatcher
addRequestHandler()	handler	Prepend a single custom request handler
addRequestHandlers()	handlers	Prepend multiple custom request handlers
addNotificationHandler()	handler	Prepend a single custom notification handler
addNotificationHandlers()	handlers	Prepend multiple custom notification handlers
addTool()	handler, name?, title?, description?, annotations?, inputSchema?, ...	Register tool
addResource()	handler, uri, name?, description?, mimeType?, size?, annotations?	Register resource
addResourceTemplate()	handler, uriTemplate, name?, description?, mimeType?, annotations?	Register resource template
addPrompt()	handler, name?, description?	Register prompt
add()	definition, handler	Register an element from a schema VO + handler pair
build()	-	Create the server instance