Serve MCP Server

Local MCP-controlled artifact shelf: agents publish HTML, Markdown, folders and files; humans get nice preview URLs.

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What is the Serve MCP server?

Serve MCP server exists for a simple reason — assistants are far more useful when they can act on Serve directly instead of describing what you should do. Local MCP-controlled artifact shelf: agents publish HTML, Markdown, folders and files; humans get nice preview URLs.

What you get

A local, MCP-controlled artifact shelf. Your AI agents publish the HTML, Markdown, folders, CSV, and JSON they generate; you get stable, safely-rendered browser URLs to look at them. Built for a machine running several agents at once: each agent gets its own MCP process, and they all publish to one shared shelf.

Setting it up

The server ships on npm as @saidmukhamad/serve-mcp, so your MCP client can launch it on demand — there is no separate build step. Add the server block to your client's configuration, restart it, and the tools register themselves.

What the assistant can call

Once Serve is connected, these are the calls the assistant has available:

  • artifact_publish — Returns the preview URL, a raw URL, an MCP resource_link, and structured artifact/publication objects. Publications are stable slots; every publish
  • artifact_list — Filter by query, tags, kind; paginate with cursor; order by createdAt | updatedAt | title
  • artifact_delete — Remove a publication by slug — all revisions and stored files go with it. Irreversible
  • Resources — Only registry://publications (JSON list of everything on the shelf) appears in resources/list, so host UIs stay clean no matter how many publications

Configuration and credentials

You will need 2 environment variables: SERVE_MCP_HOST, SERVE_MCP_BASE_URL. The server will not start without them, which is usually why the tools fail to appear on a first run. Keep credentials in your client's env block or a secrets manager rather than in a file you might commit.

Before you rely on it

  • It runs with your machine's permissions. That is convenient and also the reason to think about what you point it at before you approve a tool call.
  • Missing credentials fail quietly in some clients — if no tools show up, check the environment block first.
  • MCP clients confirm each tool call by default. Leave that on until you have watched what the serve mcp server does with a few real requests.

Choosing this one

This sits in the developer tooling group, where several servers overlap in what they claim to do but differ sharply once you actually set them up. Serve's toolset — artifact_publish, artifact_list, artifact_delete and 1 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by saidmukhamad; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.

This entry was verified against Serve's own documentation before publication; SyncDev keeps the directory reviewed rather than auto-generated.

Available tools

ToolWhat it does
artifact_publishReturns the preview URL, a raw URL, an MCP resource_link, and structured artifact/publication objects. Publications are stable slots; every publish is an immutable revision at /p/:slug/r/:artifactId.
artifact_listFilter by query, tags, kind; paginate with cursor; order by createdAt | updatedAt | title.
artifact_deleteRemove a publication by slug — all revisions and stored files go with it. Irreversible.
ResourcesOnly registry://publications (JSON list of everything on the shelf) appears in resources/list, so host UIs stay clean no matter how many publications exist. Two more resolve when read directly (tool results link to them)

How to install the Serve MCP server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "serve": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@saidmukhamad/serve-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SERVE_MCP_HOST": "your-value",
        "SERVE_MCP_BASE_URL": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop.

Configuration

VariableDescriptionRequired
SERVE_MCP_HOSTEndpoint or connection string the server talks to.Optional
SERVE_MCP_BASE_URLEndpoint or connection string the server talks to.Yes

Example prompts to try

  • Use Serve to artifact publish.
  • Use Serve to artifact list.
  • Use Serve to artifact delete.

Frequently asked questions

It connects Serve to MCP-compatible AI assistants such as Claude and Cursor, exposing 4 tools (artifact_publish, artifact_list, artifact_delete, and more) that the assistant can call on your behalf. Instead of copying data back and forth by hand, the assistant works with Serve directly.