MCP Servers with Meshagent

Purpose: This guide shows you how to take any Model‑Context Protocol (MCP) server image and “wrap” it with Meshagent so the server can be launched as a service inside a Meshagent Room and then accessed by agents, chatbots, or external callers.

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1. Why Wrap an MCP Image?

Meshagent Rooms are collaborative sandboxes where multiple AI agents (and humans) share toolkits—self‑contained HTTP services that expose standardized JSON tools. An MCP server already implements the toolkit spec, but it lacks the Room‑level plumbing:

Wrapping therefore lets any MCP server be hot‑plugged into a Room with zero application changes.

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2. High‑Level Workflow

1. Pick a base: e.g. mcp/3d-printer from Docker Hub.
2. Write a one‑page Dockerfile (see §3).
3. Build & tag: docker build -t meshagent/mcp-3d-printer:latest ..
4. Push to a registry Meshagent can pull from.
5. Launch with meshagent service.
6. Interact via chatbot or API.

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3. Reference Dockerfile

# 1️⃣  Start from an official MCP server image
FROM mcp/3d-printer

# 2️⃣  Declare how the underlying MCP server is normally started
ENV PARENT_ENTRYPOINT="node dist/index.js"

# 3️⃣  Tell Meshagent which port to expose
ENV MESHAGENT_PORT=8000

# (Optional) Name the toolkit for nice UX in the Room
ENV TOOLKIT_NAME="3d-printer"

# 4️⃣  Install Python + Meshagent inside a dedicated venv
WORKDIR /app
USER root
RUN apk add --no-cache python3 py3-virtualenv py3-pip \
    && ln -sf python3 /usr/bin/python \
    && ln -sf pip3 /usr/bin/pip

ARG MESHAGENT_VERSION=0.0.28
ENV PIP_NO_CACHE_DIR=1
RUN python3 -m venv /p3/.venv \
    && . /p3/.venv/bin/activate \
    && pip install "meshagent[mcp-service]==$MESHAGENT_VERSION"
ENV PATH="/p3/.venv/bin:$PATH"

# 5️⃣  Expose the chosen port
EXPOSE $MESHAGENT_PORT

# 6️⃣  Drop back to non‑root for security
USER user

# 7️⃣  Launch Meshagent, which in turn execs the original MCP entrypoint
ENTRYPOINT ["/bin/sh","-c","
  echo \"[Container] Starting $TOOLKIT_NAME with meshagent stdio-service on port $MESHAGENT_PORT → path /webhook\"; \
  exec meshagent mcp stdio-service \
     --port=$MESHAGENT_PORT --path=/webhook --toolkit-name=\"$TOOLKIT_NAME\" \
     --command=\"$PARENT_ENTRYPOINT\" \
"]

Key points

• meshagent mcp stdio-service converts stdin/stdout ↔ HTTP.
• --path=/webhook is Meshagent’s default webhook path for MCP traffic.
• The wrapper stays thin—no changes to the underlying server code.

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4. Build & Push

# Build the image
$ docker build -t meshagent/mcp-3d-printer:latest .

# Push to Docker Hub (or your private registry)
$ docker push meshagent/mcp-3d-printer:latest

:::tip Private registries If you use a private registry, configure a Meshagent Pull Secret so the Room can fetch the image. :::

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5. Launching in a Room

meshagent service test \
  --room=test \
  --role=agent \
  --image=meshagent/mcp-3d-printer:latest \
  --env MESHAGENT_PORT=8000 \
  --port="num=8000 path=/webhook liveness=/ type=meshagent.callable" \
  --name=mcp-3d-printer-service

• --room creates (or re‑uses) a named Room.
• --port maps container port 8000 to a callable toolkit endpoint within the Room.
• After a few seconds the toolkit appears in the Room UI and via API.

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6. Interacting from an Agent

meshagent chatbot join \
  --room=test \
  --agent-name=sample \
  --toolkit=mcp-3d-printer

The chatbot (or any agent SDK) can now call the MCP tools—e.g. print_3d_model, list_printers, etc.—through standard Meshagent JSON‑RPC messages.

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7. Debugging & Logs

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8. Best Practices

1. Pin Meshagent version (ARG MESHAGENT_VERSION) to avoid surprises.
2. Keep wrapper lean—no extra packages beyond Python & Meshagent.
3. Use non‑root user for runtime security.
4. Expose health endpoints (liveness=/) for production Rooms.
5. Document env vars (README.md, labels) so users know what to set.
6. Automate builds with CI to push :latest and semver tags.

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9. Further Reading

• Meshagent CLI Getting Started: https://docs.meshagent.com/cli/getting_started
• Meshagent StdIO Service spec: https://docs.meshagent.com/agents/standard/intro
• Meshagent Room API: https://docs.meshagent.com/room_api/overview
• Example Brave Search Toolkit: https://hub.docker.com/r/meshagent/mcp-brave-search
• MCP Server Template repo: https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers

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Quick‑Reference Checklist

• MCP base image chosen
• PARENT_ENTRYPOINT set
• MESHAGENT_PORT exposed
• Meshagent installed in venv
• ENTRYPOINT execs meshagent mcp stdio-service
• Image built & pushed to registry
• Service launched with meshagent service ...
• Toolkit visible in Room

Happy wrapping!