spring-mcp-example

This project demonstrates a Spring Boot + Spring AI MCP server that exposes a tool over the Model Context Protocol (MCP). It includes a Docker Compose setup for running the app and the MCP Inspector together.

Prerequisites

• Docker Desktop or Docker Engine
• Optional: Java 17 and Maven if you want to run the app outside Docker

Run the stack

Start the backend and inspector together:

task all

Key project files

Maven dependencies for the Spring MCP app

The required Spring AI and MCP dependencies are declared in:

• spring-mcp-app/pom.xml

Relevant section:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.ai</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-ai-starter-mcp-server-webmvc</artifactId>
</dependency>

This is the dependency that enables the Spring MCP server support used by the application.

Example MCP tool implementation

The sample tool is defined here:

• spring-mcp-app/src/main/java/org/fusadora/springmcpapp/mcp/tool/DataProductTool.java

Example implementation:

@Service
public class DataProductTool {
    @Autowired
    private DataProductService dataProductService;

    @McpTool(description = "Get information about a data product by its ID")
    public String getDataProductInfo(
            @McpToolParam(description = "The ID of the data product") String dataProductId
    ) {
        return String.format("Data Product Info: %s", dataProductService.getDataProduct(dataProductId));
    }
}

This is the core of the MCP server: the method is exposed as an MCP tool and can be discovered and invoked by an MCP client such as the inspector.

Local access

Open the Swagger UI here to explore the REST API:

http://localhost:8080/swagger-ui/index.html#

Open the MCP Inspector UI here:

http://localhost:6274

MCP server URL

The Spring MCP server is exposed at:

http://localhost:8080/mcp

When you open the inspector, connect to that URL.

On macOS with Docker Desktop, the Compose default is set to use host.docker.internal, which resolves correctly from the container to the host machine.

If you are running Docker on Linux, use the internal Compose service name instead:

http://backend:8080/mcp

Run the inspector locally

If you prefer to start the inspector outside Docker:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector@latest

Then point it to:

http://localhost:8080/mcp