Quickstart

Copy, paste, and run your first mcp-agent in minutes.

Let’s get you set up with a hello world mcp-agent!

Create the agent

Use CLI (Recommended)

1. Create a folder

   mkdir mcp-basic-agent
   cd mcp-basic-agent
   

2. Initialize your mcp-agent

   uvx mcp-agent init
   uv init
   uv add "mcp-agent[openai]"
   uv sync
   

   (Prefer pip? python -m venv .venv && pip install mcp-agent works too.)

3. Add your model provider key

   In the mcp_agent.secrets.yaml in your project directory, add your OpenAI or other model provider key.

   mcp_agent.secrets.yaml

   openai:
     api_key: "your-openai-api-key"
   

Run it locally

uv run main.py

You should see log entries for tool discovery, file access, web fetches, and the final summary tweet. Try editing the instructions or adding new MCP servers to see how the agent evolves.

Deploy it (optional)

You can deploy your agent as an MCP server.

uvx mcp-agent login
uvx mcp-agent deploy

Next steps

• Check out the generated README (if you used the CLI) for tips on extending the agent.
• Layer in more capabilities using the Effective Patterns guide.
• Ready to deploy your agent? Follow Deploy to Cloud.