Spring Into MCP

A demonstration MCP (Model Context Protocol) server built with Spring AI that provides information about KCDC (Kansas City Developer Conference) sessions and speakers.

What is MCP?

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a standardized way to connect AI models to external data sources and tools. Think of it as a bridge that allows Claude (and other AI models) to access real-time information and perform actions beyond their training data.

This demo server shows how to build an MCP server using Spring AI that exposes:

• Tools: Functions Claude can call to fetch data
• Prompts: Pre-built prompt templates
• Resources: Static content that can be retrieved

Features

This MCP server provides three main capabilities:

Tools

• kcdc-sessions-by-date: Get session counts grouped by conference date
• kcdc-sessions: Retrieve all KCDC 2025 sessions with details

Prompts

• Conference-specific prompt templates for session recommendations

Resources

• Speaker information and backgrounds

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Java 21+
• Maven 3.6+

Build and Run

# Build the project
mvn clean package -DskipTests

# Run the server
java -jar target/kcdc-mcp-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar

Test the Server

# Use the MCP Inspector to test your server
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector

Usage with Claude Desktop

Configuration

Add this server to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

Location:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kcdc-conference": {
      "command": "java",
      "args": [
        "-jar",
        "/Users/vega/Downloads/kcdc-mcp/target/kcdc-mcp-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Note: Update the path to match your actual project location.

Example Queries

Once configured, you can ask Claude questions like:

• "How many sessions will there be at KCDC this year?"
• "Can you recommend sessions for a Java Developer?"
• "What sessions are available for someone interested in AI and MCP?"
• "What's Dan Vega's background and expertise for this conference?"

Claude will automatically use the MCP server's tools and resources to provide accurate, up-to-date answers.

Project Structure

src/main/java/dev/danvega/kcdc/
├── Application.java          # Main Spring Boot application with MCP configuration
├── Conference.java           # Conference data model
├── Session.java             # Session data model
├── SessionTools.java        # MCP tools for session queries
├── ConferencePrompts.java   # MCP prompt templates
└── SpeakersResource.java    # MCP resource for speaker information

src/main/resources/
└── data/
    └── sessions.json        # Conference session data

Key Components

• SessionTools: Provides callable functions for session data retrieval
• ConferencePrompts: Templates for common conference-related queries
• SpeakersResource: Static resource containing speaker information
• sessions.json: Contains all KCDC 2025 session data that the tools query

Public MCP Server (HTTP + SSE)

By default, this MCP server runs in STDIO mode for direct integration with Claude Desktop. However, you can also run it as a public HTTP server using Server-Sent Events (SSE) for broader accessibility.

Configuration

The project includes two configuration profiles:

Default (STDIO): application.properties

• Uses standard input/output for communication
• Perfect for Claude Desktop integration
• No network exposure

Public (HTTP + SSE): application-sse.yaml

• Runs as a web server on port 8080
• Uses Server-Sent Events for real-time communication
• Accessible over HTTP for remote clients

Running as Public Server

# Build the project
mvn clean package -DskipTests

# Run with SSE profile
java -jar target/kcdc-mcp-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar --spring.profiles.active=sse

Testing the Public Server

Once running, you can test the MCP server endpoints:

# Check server status
curl http://localhost:8080/mcp/status

# List available tools
curl http://localhost:8080/mcp/tools

# Test a tool call
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/mcp/tools/kcdc-sessions-by-date \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json"

This allows the MCP server to be deployed publicly and accessed by any MCP-compatible client over HTTP.

Agenda

• Slides
• Demo Start Here
  • Browser Tabs:
    • https://claude.ai/new
    • https://start.spring.io/
    • https://docs.spring.io/spring-ai/reference/index.html
    • https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/getting-started/intro
• Ask claude (web or desktop) how many sessions are at KCDC this year
  • The model wasn't trained on this data
  • It will now invoke tools to try gather the data it needs to answer that question
• Create the MCP Server
  • start.spring.io
  • Web, MCP Server
  • application.properties (STDIO vs SSE - The code is the same, the configuration is different)
  • Show sessions data
• Models
  • Conference
  • Sessions
• Tools
  • SessionTools
  • Discuss Additional tools but don't implement
  • Add tool callbacks
  • Build mvn clean package -DskipTests
  • Test npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector
• Prompts
  • Conference Prompts
  • Build & Test
• Resources
  • SpeakerResource
  • Build & Test
• Claude Desktop
  • Configuration
  • Demo Prompts
    • How many sessions will there be at KCDC this year?
    • I'm a Java developer interested in AI and MCP. Can you recommend any sessions at KCDC this year for me?
    • That session with Dan Vega sounds interesting, can you give me some background information on him?
  • Prompts
  • Resources
• HTTP + SSE
  • Turning this into a public MCP server