mcp-for-beginners
A free beginner course teaching the Model Context Protocol (MCP) with code examples in six languages.
- Stars
- 17.6k
- Forks
- 5.7k
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- Jupyter Notebook
- Last update
- 4 days ago
- Type
- Learning resource
What it is
This is a free, open-source curriculum that explains the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a standard way for AI applications to connect to tools and services. It uses hands-on examples in C#, Java, JavaScript, Rust, Python and TypeScript. It is meant for developers who want to learn how to build MCP servers and clients step by step.
- Work through lessons to learn MCP core concepts
- Build a basic MCP server in a language of your choice
- Compare how MCP is implemented across the listed languages
- Read the linked notes on the 2026-07-28 specification changes
Great for
- Developers new to MCP who want guided lessons
- Developers who prefer a specific language among the six covered
- Teams wanting a shared introduction to MCP concepts before building
- Students learning how AI apps connect to external tools
Not ideal for
- People looking for a ready-made application to install, since this is a course rather than software
- Experienced MCP developers who only need the protocol reference, which the README points to the official specification for instead
- Non-developers, because the examples assume programming experience
How to get it
- 1
Clone and build from source
You'll need: Git
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/mcp-for-beginners.git - 2
Run it
- Clone the repository or use the sparse checkout command in the README to skip translations
- Open the README and follow the lesson order
- Pick the language examples that match your stack
- Follow the linked MCP documentation when you need deeper detail
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Use the sparse checkout command to download only the English course material
- Read the 2026-07-28 specification changes note before starting the examples
- Check the Microsoft Foundry Discord and MCP community discussions for help
- Use the official MCP specification as a reference while working through lessons
Downloads
Strengths
- Covers six programming languages with cross-language examples
- Released under the MIT license and free to use
- Points to official MCP documentation and specification for deeper reference
Trade-offs
- The README is truncated, so the full lesson list and per-lesson setup could not be verified here
- The README says some examples target the older 2025-11-25 spec version while SDK support catches up, which may cause confusion
- Large repository with 50+ translations; sparse checkout is suggested to reduce download size
How it compares
| Project | Stars | Type | Level | Updated | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mcp-for-beginners (this) | 17.6k | Learning resource | beginner | 4 days ago | Developers new to MCP who want guided lessons |
| python-sdk | 24.7k | Library | intermediate | 5 days ago | Python developers who want to expose their own functions to an LLM app as MCP tools |
| mcp-use | 10.8k | Library | intermediate | 6 days ago | TypeScript developers who want to build MCP servers |
| codebase-memory-mcp | 48k | Dev tool | intermediate | 4 days ago | Developers who use an MCP-capable AI coding agent on a large codebase |
| ida-pro-mcp | 13.3k | App | intermediate | 1 months ago | Reverse engineers who already use IDA Pro 8.3 or newer and want an AI assistant to help with analysis |
| fastapi_mcp | 12k | Library | intermediate | 12 months ago | Python developers who already have a FastAPI app and want AI assistants to use it |
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.