SampleDotnetMcpServer

This project is a sample implementation of a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server in .NET, designed to demonstrate how to build, run, and publish an MCP server using C# and the ModelContextProtocol SDK.

mcp-name: io.github.timheuer/sampledotnetmcpserver

What is this?

SampleDotnetMcpServer is a reference MCP server for .NET, showing how to:

Implement MCP tools in C# (see Tools/RandomNumberTools.cs, Tools/SayHelloName.cs, Tools/WeatherTools.cs)
Register tools and configure the MCP server transport (see Program.cs)
Package and publish the server as a NuGet package for use in IDEs like VS Code and Visual Studio

The included tools demonstrate various MCP capabilities:

get_random_number: Generates random numbers within a specified range
say_hello_name and say_goodbye_name: Simple greeting tools
get_weather_by_zip_code: Gets current weather information for any US zip code
get_weather_forecast: Gets a multi-day weather forecast for any US zip code

Features

Implements the MCP protocol using stdio transport
Provides multiple sample tools:
- get_random_number: Returns a random integer in a specified range
- say_hello_name and say_goodbye_name: Simple greeting tools
- get_weather_by_zip_code: Gets current weather for any US zip code using wttr.in API
- get_weather_forecast: Gets multi-day weather forecast for any US zip code
Ready to be packed and published as a NuGet MCP server
Example configuration files and metadata included

How to use

Run locally

You can run the MCP server directly from source for development and testing:

dotnet run --project .

Or configure your IDE to use the following MCP server definition:

{
  "servers": {
    "SampleDotnetMcpServer": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "dotnet",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--project",
        "<PATH TO PROJECT DIRECTORY>"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Test the MCP server

Once running, you can use Copilot Chat or any MCP client to invoke the available tools:

Weather Tools:

Ask: "What's the weather like in 90210?" to get current weather
Ask: "Give me a 3-day forecast for 10001" to get a weather forecast
Ask: "Check the weather in 60601" to test with Chicago's zip code

Other Tools:

Ask: "Give me 3 random numbers" to use the random number generator
Ask: "Say hello to John" to use the greeting tools

Publish to NuGet.org

CI handles publishing to NuGet, using NuGet Trusted Publishing for the key and automatic versioning using Nerdbank.GitVersioning.

Use from NuGet.org

After publishing, configure your IDE to use the MCP server from NuGet.org. Example configuration (replace package id and version):

{
  "servers": {
    "SampleDotnetMcpServer": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "dnx",
      "args": [
        "TimHeuer.SampleMcpServer",
        "--version",
        "0.1.0-beta",
        "--yes"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Project structure

Program.cs: MCP server entry point and configuration
Tools/RandomNumberTools.cs: Example MCP tool for generating random numbers
Tools/SayHelloName.cs: Example MCP tools for greetings
Tools/WeatherTools.cs: Weather-related MCP tools for checking weather by zip code
.mcp/server.json: MCP server metadata and NuGet package info
SampleDotnetMcpServer.csproj: Project and NuGet packaging configuration

Learn more

This project is for demonstration and reference purposes only. For feedback or contributions, see the GitHub repository.

sampledotnetmcpserver

Documentation