AUTOMATIONSWITCH
OfficialDev Tools

MCP for Beginners

by Microsoft

Open-source curriculum from Microsoft introducing the fundamentals of Model Context Protocol. 16,087 GitHub stars and 100 commits on main in the last 30 days.

16,087·4 tools·Released APR 2025·MIT
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/mcp-for-beginners
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Open-source curriculum from Microsoft introducing the fundamentals of Model Context Protocol. 16,087 stars and 100 commits on main in the last 30 days.

Reviewed by M. Nouriel · MAY 2026

INSTALL THIS SERVER

{ "mcpServers": {} }
PrereqClone via `git clone https://github.com/microsoft/mcp-for-beginners`. Curriculum repo; not a runtime MCP server. Path: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS).
{ "mcpServers": {} }
{ "mcpServers": {} }
{ "mcpServers": {} }
{ "mcpServers": {} }

4 TOOLS AVAILABLE

list_lessons
List the MCP curriculum lessons
Read
get_lesson
Retrieve a specific lesson with code samples
Read
list_languages
List language tracks (Python, TypeScript, C#, Java, Go)
Read

OUR ASSESSMENT

Strengths
  • Microsoft official maintenance.
  • 16,087 GitHub stars.
  • 100 commits on main in the last 30 days.
  • MIT license.
  • Five language tracks (Python, TypeScript, C#, Java, Go).
  • Hands-on exercises with solutions.
Weaknesses
  • Curriculum scope; not a runtime MCP server.
  • Lesson cadence depends on Microsoft Educators team; expect periodic gaps.
  • Examples may favour Microsoft ecosystem patterns.
Security Notes

No authentication. Educational content carries no runtime security risk; lesson examples should be reviewed before deploying patterns verbatim to production.

Best For

Engineers new to MCP who want a structured curriculum; teams onboarding to MCP across multiple languages; bootcamp instructors building MCP modules.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

Language
multiple
Transport
stdio
Clients
Claude DesktopClaude CodeCursorVS CodeWindsurf
License
MIT
GitHub
npm
mcp-for-beginners
Last Release
mcp-for-beginners (Microsoft curriculum)MAY 12, 2026
First Released
APR 1, 2025

ADOPTION METRICS

// GitHub Stars
16,087

// Reading this16,087 stars on microsoft/mcp-for-beginners. 100 commits on main in the last 30 days.

// Popularity Rank
#3
Globally · #3 in Dev Tools

// Reading thisPairs with MCP Spec, FastMCP, MCP Go SDK, MCP Inspector, MCP Registry, Microsoft Skills MCP as the foundational MCP learning and tooling layer.

SOURCES & VERIFICATION

We don't take any single directory's word for it. Before scoring, we cross-reference 5 public MCP sources, install the server ourselves against the clients we cover, and record when we last re-verified.

01
Discovered
Manual submission
First indexed MAY 12, 2026
02
Cross-referenced
5 directories
PulseMCP, MCP.so, Glama, Smithery, Official MCP Registry
03
Verified against
All MCP-compatible clients (curriculum examples target each client)
Installed and tested across clients
04
Last re-checked
MAY 12, 2026
Weekly re-verification
// How other directories see it

The same server, 5 different lenses. We reconcile these signals into our editorial score, which is why our number sometimes diverges from a directory-aggregate star count.

SourceTheir ratingTheir star countTheir downloadsLast synced
AutomationSwitch This page4.6editorial16,087MAY 12, 2026
PulseMCP— unratedunavailableunavailableMAY 12, 2026
MCP.so— unratedunavailableunavailableMAY 12, 2026
Glama— unratedunavailableunavailableMAY 12, 2026
Smithery— unratedunavailableunavailableMAY 12, 2026
Official MCP Registry— unratedunavailableunavailableMAY 12, 2026

// Counts are directory-reported; we don't adjust them. Discrepancies usually come from different snapshot times or star-caching.

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Pack the entire repository into a single AI-friendly file. Optimised context for feeding codebases to Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and others. 24,515 GitHub stars and 100 commits on main in the last 30 days.

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// Get in touch

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