Tips, tricks, and lessons from building software.
Tips, tricks, and lessons from building software — a personal dev blog by Tommy.
Stdio vs HTTP vs SSE Transports
MCP servers connect over stdio, http, or sse; pick the transport that matches whether the server runs locally or remotely.
MCP Server Scopes: Local, Project, and User
Scope decides who sees a server: local to one project, shared with your team via .mcp.json, or across all your projects.
Sharing MCP Servers with Your Team via .mcp.json
Project scope writes servers to a checked-in .mcp.json so everyone who clones the repo gets the same integrations.
Authenticating to Remote MCP Servers
Remote MCP servers sign you in with OAuth or with request headers; use the /mcp menu to complete an OAuth login.
Using Environment Variables in MCP Config
Pass secrets to MCP servers with --env or with ${VAR} expansion in .mcp.json so keys never get committed to git.
Referencing MCP Resources with @ Mentions
Beyond tools, MCP servers publish resources you can pull into a prompt with an @ mention so Claude reads them first.