zero-mcp

Overview

Zero MCP offers an alternative to the official MCP SDK by focusing on performance and simplicity. It eliminates dependency bloat by using only two packages (zod and zod-to-json-schema), provides native HTTP server performance without Express middleware overhead, and reduces boilerplate code with an API that allows instant server setup. The toolkit includes built-in observability through lifecycle hooks, production-ready CORS controls, and Zod integration for automatic JSON Schema generation.

Try asking AI

After installing, here are 3 things you can ask your AI assistant:

• add({ a: number, b: number }) => Promise<Array<{ type: 'text', text: string }>>

  Simple addition tool that returns the sum of two numbers.

  Try:Add 5 and 3Try:What is 10 plus 15?

Note: Only one tool example ('add') was explicitly shown in the README code example. No other tools are documented, though the framework allows for creating tools via server.tool().

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Installation

npm install zero-mcp zod

import { McpServer, z } from 'zero-mcp';

const server = new McpServer({
  name: 'calculator',
  version: '1.0.0',
});

server.tool({
  name: 'add',
  description: 'Simple addition tool.',
  schema: z.object({
    a: z.number().describe('First addend'),
    b: z.number().describe('Second addend'),
  }),
  handler: async ({ a, b }) => {
    return [{
      type: 'text',
      text: `The sum of ${a} and ${b} is ${a + b}.`,
    }];
  },
});

await server.start({
  host: '127.0.0.1',
  port: 3000,
  path: '/mcp',
});

console.log('Ready on http://127.0.0.1:3000/mcp');

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zero-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["path/to/your/server.js"]
    }
  }
}

Compare zero-mcp with