🏪 Small Business Customer Care MCP Server

A Spring AI-powered MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for managing small business customer care operations through AI assistants like Claude Desktop.

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💬 See It In Action

Here's what you can do with this MCP server through natural conversation with Claude Desktop:

👤 User	🤖 Claude (via MCP)	🔧 What Happened
"Show me the list of businesses"	Lists all 5 businesses with their details and categories	Used list_businesses tool
"Delete green thumb business"	✅ "Deleted: Green Thumb Landscaping business"	Used remove_business with ID "3"
"Create new business called Ravi Restaurant that opens at 9AM and closes at 5PM"	✅ "Created: Ravi Restaurant • Category: Restaurant • Hours: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM daily • Location: 789 Pine Rd, Springfield"	Used create_business with hours in description
"Mike's auto repair shop opens at 1PM and closes at 9PM"	✅ "Updated: Mike's Auto Repair • Hours: 1:00 PM - 9:00 PM daily • All other details preserved"	Used update_business to add hours
"Show me the list of business names"	Current businesses: • Joe's Coffee Shop • Tech Repair Solutions • Bella's Boutique • Mike's Auto Repair (Hours: 1:00 PM - 9:00 PM) • Ravi Restaurant (Hours: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM) Total: 5 businesses	Used list_businesses and formatted response
"Find all restaurants"	Shows Ravi Restaurant and Joe's Coffee Shop with full details	Used search_businesses with query "restaurant"

🎯 The Power: Natural language → Structured business operations → Real data management

⚡ Claude Desktop Setup

Step 1: Download Claude Desktop

Download and install Claude Desktop from the official website:

• Official Download: https://claude.ai/download
• Available for macOS, Windows, and Linux

Download Claude Desktop from the official website

Step 2: Build the MCP Server

# Clone and build the project
git clone https://github.com/ravikalla/mcp-small-business-customer-care.git
cd mcp-small-business-customer-care
mvn clean package

# Verify JAR creation
ls -la target/small-business-customer-care-1.0.0.jar

Step 3: Configure Claude Desktop

Open the Claude Desktop configuration file:

📍 Configuration File Locations:

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

💡 Tip: On macOS, you can quickly open the config file:

open "~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json"

Add this configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "small-business-customer-care": {
      "command": "java",
      "args": [
        "-jar",
        "/absolute/path/to/your/mcp-small-business-customer-care/target/small-business-customer-care-1.0.0.jar"
      ],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Example configuration file with MCP server entry

⚠️ Important Notes:

• Replace /absolute/path/to/your/ with your actual project path
• Use absolute paths only (e.g., /Users/john/projects/mcp-small-business-customer-care/target/...)
• On Windows, use forward slashes: C:/Users/john/projects/...

Step 4: Restart Claude Desktop

Completely quit and reopen Claude Desktop after updating the configuration:

• macOS: Cmd+Q to quit, then reopen from Applications
• Windows: Right-click system tray icon → Exit, then reopen
• Alternative: Close all Claude Desktop windows and reopen the application

Use Cmd+Q to quit Claude Desktop on macOS

The MCP server should now be available.

Step 5: Verify Connection

1. Check Developer Settings: Go to Claude Desktop Settings → Developer tab to see your MCP server running

The MCP server running successfully in Claude Desktop's developer settings

2. Test the tools: Try asking:
   • "Show me all businesses"
   • "What business tools are available?"

You should see the business management tools working! 🎉

Example conversation showing the MCP tools in action

📚 Additional Resources:

• MCP.so Community Platform - Our server listing
• Claude Desktop MCP Documentation
• MCP Troubleshooting Guide
• Spring AI MCP Documentation

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Java 17 or higher
• Maven 3.6 or higher
• Claude Desktop (for AI assistant integration)

Installation & Build

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ravikalla/mcp-small-business-customer-care.git
cd mcp-small-business-customer-care

# Build the application
mvn clean package

# Verify the JAR was created
ls -la target/small-business-customer-care-1.0.0.jar

Testing the Server

# Test initialization
echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2024-11-05"},"id":0}' | java -jar target/small-business-customer-care-1.0.0.jar

# Test business listing
echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"list_businesses","arguments":{}},"id":2}' | java -jar target/small-business-customer-care-1.0.0.jar

🔧 Claude Desktop Integration

Add this configuration to your Claude Desktop config file:

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "small-business-customer-care": {
      "command": "java",
      "args": [
        "-jar",
        "/path/to/your/mcp-small-business-customer-care/target/small-business-customer-care-1.0.0.jar"
      ],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Important: Replace /path/to/your/ with the actual absolute path to your project directory.

Restart Claude Desktop completely after updating the configuration.

🛠️ Available Business Tools

The server provides 6 MCP tools for complete business management:

Tool	Purpose	Example Usage
list_businesses	Get all businesses	"Show me all businesses"
search_businesses	Find by name/category/description	"Find restaurants"
get_business	Get details by ID	"Show details for business 1"
create_business	Add new business	"Create Ravi Restaurant..."
update_business	Modify existing business	"Update business hours for..."
remove_business	Delete business	"Delete green thumb business"

JSON API Examples

// Create new business
{
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "create_business",
    "arguments": {
      "name": "Ravi Restaurant",
      "category": "Restaurant", 
      "address": "789 Pine Rd, Springfield",
      "phone": "555-0106",
      "email": "info@ravirestaurant.com",
      "description": "Family-friendly restaurant. Hours: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM daily",
      "rating": 4.5
    }
  }
}

// Search businesses
{
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "search_businesses",
    "arguments": { "query": "restaurant" }
  }
}

🏗️ Technical Architecture

Built with Spring AI MCP Framework:

• Uses spring-ai-mcp-server-spring-boot-starter for robust MCP protocol handling
• Annotation-driven tool definitions with @Tool
• Automatic tool discovery via ToolCallbacks.from()
• Clean STDIO transport with proper logging configuration

@Service
public class BusinessService {
    @Tool(name = "list_businesses", description = "Get a list of all businesses")
    public List<Business> listBusinesses() { ... }
    
    @Tool(name = "search_businesses", description = "Search businesses by name, category, or description")
    public List<Business> searchBusinesses(String query) { ... }
    // ... other tool methods
}

🧪 Development & Testing

# Run all tests
mvn test

# Start in development mode  
mvn spring-boot:run

# Build for production
mvn clean package -DskipTests

Sample Data: The server comes pre-loaded with 5 businesses: Joe's Coffee Shop, Tech Repair Solutions, Green Thumb Landscaping, Bella's Boutique, Mike's Auto Repair

🔧 Troubleshooting

Server Not Connecting:

1. Verify Java 17+: java -version
2. Check JAR exists: ls -la target/small-business-customer-care-1.0.0.jar
3. Test manually with echo commands above
4. Restart Claude Desktop completely

Build Issues:

mvn clean package -DskipTests  # Skip tests if failing
mvn clean package -X          # Verbose output

Path Issues:

• Use absolute paths in Claude Desktop configuration
• Escape spaces with quotes: "/path with spaces/"

📚 Resources

• Model Context Protocol Specification
• Spring AI Documentation
• Claude Desktop MCP Setup

📄 License

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.

🌐 Community

This MCP server is part of the growing MCP.so community!

• ⭐ Star the project if you find it useful
• 🐛 Report issues on GitHub
• 💡 Suggest features for future versions
• 🤝 Contribute to make it even better

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Ready to use? Follow the Claude Desktop integration steps above and start managing your business data with AI! 🚀