MCP Server Development — Manchester
Custom Model Context Protocol servers that connect Claude, ChatGPT, and other LLMs to your databases, APIs, and internal tools. Built by a Manchester AI agency for production use, not demo decks.
What an MCP Server Actually Does for You
Instead of writing brittle prompts that hope Claude can guess your data shape, you give it real tools. Below is what we typically build for Manchester clients in the first project.
Database MCP Servers
Expose Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, or BigQuery to Claude and ChatGPT via the Model Context Protocol. Type-safe queries, parameterised inputs, read-only by default.
Internal API Wrappers
Wrap your existing internal APIs as MCP tools so AI agents can call them safely. Auth headers, rate limiting, and audit logging built in.
Workflow Orchestration Servers
MCP servers that chain multi-step business workflows — invoice generation, lead enrichment, content publishing — exposed as single tool calls to your AI assistant.
SaaS Integration MCPs
Pre-built or bespoke MCP wrappers for Salesforce, HubSpot, Stripe, Notion, Linear, and 50+ other SaaS tools. Let Claude operate your stack without writing scripts.
Secure & Auditable
Scoped permissions per tool, parameterised inputs to prevent injection, structured audit logs for every AI invocation. Built for regulated industries.
Custom Tool Servers
Need to expose proprietary calculations, internal data, or domain-specific logic to an LLM? We build the MCP server, you keep the IP. TypeScript or Python.
Why MCP and Not Just Function-Calling?
Function-calling APIs are vendor-locked. The tool definitions you write for OpenAI's function-calling don't move to Claude. The ones you write for Claude don't move to Gemini. MCP is the open standard that fixes that — write the integration once, run it against any MCP-compliant AI client.
For Manchester businesses building anything serious on top of LLMs, that portability matters. The frontier-model leader changes every six months. The AI feature you ship today on Claude needs to keep working on whatever's best in twelve months without a re-build. MCP is what makes that possible.
We've been building production AI integrations for Manchester clients since 2023 — long enough to know that the "throw it at GPT and see what happens" era is over. The systems that ship and stay shipped are the ones with proper tool boundaries, audit logs, and predictable permission scoping. MCP gives us all three.
Our MCP Server Development Process
Same five steps for every MCP project, whether it's a single-tool database server or a 15-tool workflow orchestrator. Predictable timeline, predictable cost.
Discovery — what should Claude actually do?
Most MCP projects start with a vague wish list. We narrow it down to 3-7 high-impact tools, mapped to existing data and APIs you already have. Output: a written tool spec.
Schema & permission design
We design the JSON schema for every tool input, define which roles can call which tools, and decide read-only vs write-permission boundaries. This is where 90% of MCP bugs are prevented.
Build the MCP server
TypeScript or Python implementation using the official MCP SDK. Auth, error handling, structured logging, and rate limiting are not optional add-ons — they're baked in from line one.
Test against Claude Desktop + Claude API
We test every tool against the real Claude clients before declaring it done. Edge cases like ambiguous inputs, missing data, and rate-limit conditions are validated, not assumed.
Deploy + monitor
Deploy to Render, Railway, AWS Lambda, or your own infrastructure. We wire up Sentry/PostHog for runtime monitoring so you see what Claude is actually calling and how often.
Technology Stack
We build with the official Anthropic MCP SDK and battle-tested hosting. Your repo, your IP — we hand it over in a state your team can maintain.
Related Services
MCP server development pairs naturally with these three Manchester AI services.
Frequently Asked Questions
Got a real MCP project in mind?
Book a 30-minute scoping call — we'll tell you whether MCP is the right protocol for your problem, what the build would cost, and what we'd do differently. Even if you don't hire us.
Prefer to compare options first? Explore AI consulting services, chatbot pricing guide or Manchester AI insights.