The resource shelf

The official documentation hub — concepts, quickstarts, and SDK guides. Start with the server quickstart.

The current normative spec; the changelog is the fastest way to see what each revision actually changed.

The per-language SDK index — which tier each SDK sits in and where its docs live.

Official docs for the debugging tool you will use most: npx it against any server, in UI or CLI mode.

The official server registry (preview) — reverse-DNS namespaces, published via the mcp-publisher CLI.

Announcements from the spec maintainers — the primary source for spec revisions and working-group decisions.

The official Python SDK (PyPI package mcp) — FastMCP 1.0 server class, clients, and transports.

The official TypeScript SDK (@modelcontextprotocol/sdk) — McpServer, transports, and client code.

Reference server implementations — the best place to read idiomatic tool, resource, and prompt code.

Source for the Inspector, including the CLI mode flags that make it scriptable in CI.

claude mcp add, transport flags, scopes, and the .mcp.json project file — the reference for wiring servers into Claude Code.

The official walkthrough for claude_desktop_config.json — where it lives and why absolute paths matter.

Cursor's .cursor/mcp.json format and its per-project versus global server configuration.

VS Code's native MCP support — adding servers, trust prompts, and agent-mode tool use.

What ChatGPT connectors require of your remote server — OAuth 2.1, DCR, and tool-surface rules.

The most complete deploy-a-remote-server walkthrough: Workers hosting plus OAuth scaffolding.

Free, structured MCP courses from the protocol's originators — good for a guided first pass.

A free community course with a certification track; strong on the open-source client ecosystem.

Multi-language curriculum (C#, Java, Python, TypeScript…) with labs — useful beyond the usual two SDKs.

The normative page naming the real attacks — confused deputy, token passthrough, session hijacking — and the required mitigations.

The OAuth resource-server model in full: RFC 8707 resource indicators and RFC 9728 protected-resource metadata.

A practitioner checklist for MCP deployments — tool poisoning, supply-chain, and permission-scoping guidance in one page.