Lesson Content

Transport selection criteria.

• Factor: Deployment; stdio: Local, same machine as host; HTTP/SSE: Remote or shared infrastructure
• Factor: Multiple clients; stdio: One client (child process model); HTTP/SSE: Multiple simultaneous clients
• Factor: Authentication; stdio: OS process permissions; HTTP/SSE: Explicit (bearer token, mTLS)
• Factor: Latency; stdio: Lowest (IPC); HTTP/SSE: Higher (network)
• Factor: Complexity; stdio: Lower; HTTP/SSE: Higher
• Factor: Production infrastructure; stdio: Limited; HTTP/SSE: Full (load balancing, health checks)

Default choice: stdio for personal tools and development. HTTP/SSE for production servers, shared organizational tools, and remote deployments.

HTTP/SSE server implementation (Python pattern).

from mcp.server.sse import SseServerTransport
from starlette.applications import Starlette
from starlette.routing import Route, Mount

sse = SseServerTransport("/messages/")

async def handle_sse(request):
async with sse.connect_sse(request.scope, request.receive, request._send) as streams:
await app.run(streams[0], streams[1], app.create_initialization_options())

starlette_app = Starlette(routes=[
Route("/sse", endpoint=handle_sse),
Mount("/messages/", app=sse.handle_post_message),
])

Run with an ASGI server (uvicorn). Verify current HTTP/SSE implementation patterns at modelcontextprotocol.io/sdk.

Authentication for remote servers.

Remote MCP servers should require authentication. Common patterns:

• Bearer token: Client includes an Authorization header; server validates the token before accepting the connection
• mTLS (mutual TLS): Both client and server present certificates; appropriate for server-to-server deployments

For Claude Code connecting to a remote server, configure the bearer token in the MCP server configuration entry. The client includes it on every connection.

Health checks and load balancing.

HTTP/SSE servers integrate with standard infrastructure:

• Add a /health endpoint that returns 200 when the server is ready
• Configure load balancer health checks against /health
• Use standard HTTP monitoring for server availability

stdio servers have no HTTP surface – health checking must be via process monitoring.