MCP Servers Beyond 101: Good Practices, Design Choices and Their Consequences

A 90-minute deep dive exploring production-grade design patterns for Model Context Protocol servers. This presentation moves beyond introductory concepts to examine critical architecture decisions: choosing between generic and domain-specific approaches, balancing flexibility with security constraints, and implementing reliable systems at scale.

Drawing parallels to REST API evolution, we cover composition patterns, contract management, testing strategies, observability, and safety guardrails for autonomous agent systems.

Key topics covered:

• MCP fundamentals and the agentic revolution
• Design choices (generic vs. custom servers)
• All three MCP primitives (Tools, Resources, Prompts)
• Production patterns (security, testing, observability)
• Operating multiple servers (composition, versioning, cost controls)
• Safety and reliability frameworks