You will build an MCP server with three custom AI tools in 30 minutes: a database query tool, a notification tool, and a file operations tool. By the end of this tutorial, you will have a working MCP server with Zod-validated tool schemas, rate limiting, circuit breaker resilience, and full integration with the NeuroLink SDK for end-to-end AI tool calling.
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) decouples your business logic from your AI orchestration layer. Instead of hardcoding tool logic into your application, you define tools on a server that any AI agent can discover and execute at runtime. Now you will set up the server and build your first tool.
What is the Model Context Protocol?
MCP standardizes how AI models discover and execute tools. The protocol defines a clear lifecycle: a server registers tools with their schemas, an AI agent discovers those tools at connection time, the model decides when to call a tool based on the user's request, the server executes the tool logic, and the result flows back to the model for incorporation into the final response.
sequenceDiagram
