ch02-00-environment-setup
Before building your first MCP server, let's ensure your development environment is properly configured. This setup exercise will verify all required tools are installed and working.
🎯 Learning Objectives
💡 Hints
Hint 1: Installing Rust
If Rust is not installed, run:
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source ~/.cargo/env
Verify with rustc --version - should be 1.82.0 or later.
Hint 2: Installing cargo-pmcp
Install the PMCP development toolkit:
cargo install cargo-pmcp
If installation fails, first update Rust: rustup update stable
Hint 3: MCP Inspector
The MCP Inspector is a web-based tool for testing MCP servers:
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector
No installation needed - it runs via npx.
Hint 4: Setting up Claude Desktop
Download Claude Desktop from claude.ai.
Configure MCP servers in ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows).
⚠️ Try the exercise first! Show Solution
# Complete verification script
echo "=== Rust Toolchain ==="
rustc --version && cargo --version
echo -e "\n=== cargo-pmcp ==="
cargo pmcp --version
echo -e "\n=== Node.js (for MCP Inspector) ==="
node --version && npx --version
echo -e "\n=== Environment Ready! ==="
Explanation
Expected output:
🧪 Tests
View Test Code
# Test 1: Rust is installed
rustc --version | grep -q "rustc 1\." && echo "PASS: Rust installed" || echo "FAIL: Rust not found"
Test 2: Cargo is available
cargo --version | grep -q "cargo 1." && echo "PASS: Cargo installed" || echo "FAIL: Cargo not found"
Test 3: cargo-pmcp is installed
cargo pmcp --version 2>/dev/null && echo "PASS: cargo-pmcp installed" || echo "FAIL: cargo-pmcp not found - run: cargo install cargo-pmcp"
Test 4: Node.js is available (for MCP Inspector)
node --version | grep -q "v" && echo "PASS: Node.js installed" || echo "WARN: Node.js not found - needed for MCP Inspector"
🤔 Reflection
- Did you encounter any installation issues? Note them for troubleshooting.
- Which MCP client will you use? (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code + Continue)
- Are you planning to deploy to cloud? If so, ensure you have the relevant CLI installed (aws, wrangler, or gcloud).