rand MCP Skills Discovery
Provides automatic access to comprehensive MCP server development, tool design, and testing skills.
When This Skill Activates
This skill auto-activates when you're working with:
- Building MCP servers (TypeScript or Python)
- Designing MCP tools, resources, or prompts
- Choosing MCP transports (stdio, SSE, Streamable HTTP)
- Implementing JSON-RPC 2.0 over MCP
- Testing MCP servers with Inspector or automated tests
- Debugging MCP protocol or transport issues
- Publishing or deploying MCP servers
Available Skills
Quick Reference
The MCP category contains 3 specialized skills:
- mcp-server-fundamentals - Architecture, transports, tools/resources/prompts primitives, SDK setup
- mcp-tool-design - Tool naming, schemas, error handling, annotations, progressive disclosure
- mcp-testing - Inspector, unit tests, integration tests, transport debugging, CI/CD
Load Full Category Details
For complete descriptions and workflows:
Read ../mcp/INDEX.md
This loads the full MCP category index with:
- Detailed skill descriptions
- Usage triggers for each skill
- Common workflow combinations
- Cross-references to related skills
Load Specific Skills
Load individual skills as needed:
Server architecture and setup
Read ../mcp/mcp-server-fundamentals.md
Tool design and best practices
Read ../mcp/mcp-tool-design.md
Testing and debugging
Read ../mcp/mcp-testing.md
Common Workflows
New MCP Server
Sequence: Fundamentals -> Tool Design -> Testing
Read ../mcp/mcp-server-fundamentals.md # Architecture, transport, SDK Read ../mcp/mcp-tool-design.md # Design tool interfaces Read ../mcp/mcp-testing.md # Test with Inspector, CI
Adding Tools to Existing Server
Sequence: Tool Design -> Testing
Read ../mcp/mcp-tool-design.md # Naming, schemas, errors Read ../mcp/mcp-testing.md # Test new tools
Debugging MCP Issues
Sequence: Testing -> Fundamentals
Read ../mcp/mcp-testing.md # Inspector, transport debugging Read ../mcp/mcp-server-fundamentals.md # Lifecycle, capabilities
Integration with Other Skills
MCP skills commonly combine with:
API skills (discover-api):
- MCP servers wrapping REST or GraphQL APIs
- Authentication for MCP tool backends
Testing skills (discover-testing):
- Comprehensive test strategies
- Contract testing patterns
Infrastructure skills (discover-infra, discover-cloud):
- Deploying MCP servers
- Scaling HTTP transports
Progressive Loading
This gateway skill (~170 lines, ~1.5K tokens) enables progressive loading:
- Level 1: Gateway loads automatically (you're here now)
- Level 2: Load category INDEX.md (~2.5K tokens) for full overview
- Level 3: Load specific skills (~2-3K tokens each) as needed
Total context: 1.5K + 2.5K + skill(s) = 4-8K tokens vs 12K+ for everything.
Quick Start Examples
"Build an MCP server": Read ../mcp/mcp-server-fundamentals.md
"Design MCP tools for my API": Read ../mcp/mcp-tool-design.md
"Test my MCP server": Read ../mcp/mcp-testing.md
"Debug why my MCP tool isn't showing up": Read ../mcp/mcp-testing.md
Next Steps: Run Read ../mcp/INDEX.md to see full category details, or load specific skills using the commands above.