Building with MCP: Servers, Clients, and the Install Review

The engineering side of MCP — what a server actually declares, how a client discovers and calls it, where the OAuth story really stands, how to test a server, and the review you owe yourself before installing somebody else’s.

Content current as of 2026-09.

Lessons

1. Anatomy of a server: tools, resources, prompts
2. Connecting a client: discover, negotiate, call
3. Authorization, and where the server runs
4. Testing and debugging a server
5. The review before you install somebody else’s server