Model Context Protocol

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a protocol that standardizes the way agents can communicate with external tools and services. It allows agents to access and utilize various tools, such as search engines, databases, and other resources, in a consistent manner.

By enabling the Model Context Protocol, you can enhance the capabilities of your agents and enable them to perform more complex tasks by leveraging external tools.

MCP support may be enables in Settings / Agent Tools by switching toggle button Enable Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Alchemist Settings Window with Enabled Model Context Protocol (MCP) option. — Alchemist Setting View with **Enable Model Context Protocol (MCP)** option enabled. This option is available in the **Settings** / **Agent Tools** section. After enabling this option, you will be able to add MCP server and tools. Github MCP server is displayed as an example.

After enabling the Model Context Protocol, you can add an MCP server and list the tools provided by added server.

Add MCP Server

To add an MCP server, you need to fill in the following fields:

MCP Server Name - A name for the MCP server. This can be any name you choose.
Command - Command to use in order to start the server.
Arguments - Arguments of the Command.
Environment Variables - optional variables that this server requires. The format of variables should be VAR1=val1, VAR2=val2.

All above fields are distributed with MCP server and often presented in form of a JSON configuration file for Claude Desktop. For example Google Maps MCP Server available here provides the following configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "google-maps": {
        "command": "npx",
        "args": [
            "-y",
            "@modelcontextprotocol/server-google-maps"
        ],
        "env": {
            "GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY": ""
        }
        }
    }
}

With this configuration as a reference, you can add the server to Alchemist by filling in the fields as follows:

MCP Server Name - GoogleMaps
Command - npx
Arguments - -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-google-maps
Environment Variables - GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY=MY_API_KEY

Adding New MCP Server — Adding new MCP server. All fields are filled in with the example of **Google Maps MCP Server**. The **Command** and **Arguments** fields are filled in with the command to start the server. The **Environment Variables** field is filled in with the required environment variable.

After filling in the fields, click on the Add MCP Server button to add the server.

Once the server is added, you will see it listed in the MCP Servers section. Names of all the tools provided by this server will be now listed.

New MCP Server Added — New MCP server added and displayed under existing ones. Name and command together with its arguments are listed for reference. Below the server options we display the full list of tools provided by this server.

The filed including the information about every server includes also two buttons on the right side of the server name. The first button allows you to delete the server. The second button allows you to get more information about the server tools. After selecting that option, the new window will open with table including the list of all tools provided by this server together with their descriptions.

MCP Tools Details — Details of the tools provided by newly added MCP server. Table includes the names and descriptions of the tools.

Add MCP Provided Tools to Agents

After adding the MCP server, you can add the tools provided by this server to your agents. To do this, go to the Agent Team section and select the agent team you want to add the tools to.

The MCP provided tools will be listed in the complete set of tools enabled in Alchemist with internal and user provided tools being on top of the list. The MCP tools will have the names reflecting their type (MCP) and server name in the form MCP | ServerName | ToolName. The tools are added by selecting the checkbox next to their name.

Add MCP Provided Tools to Agent — MCP provided tools are available in the list of tools that can be added to the agent. The list of tools is available at agent creation or in the agent list after a selected team is loaded.

Agent Tools

Bring Your Own tools