Azure Container Apps - AI & MCP Playground

This project showcases how to use the MCP protocol with OpenAI, Azure OpenAI and GitHub Models. It provides a simple demo terminal application that interacts with a TODO list Agent. The agent has access to a set of tools provided by the MCP server.

MCP Components

The current implementation consists of three main components:

1. MCP Host: The main application that interacts with the MCP server and the LLM provider. The host instanciates an LLM provider and provides a terminal interface for the user to interact with the agent.
2. MCP Client: The client that communicates with the MCP server using the MCP protocol. The application providers two MCP clients for both HTTP and SSE (Server-Sent Events) protocols.
3. MCP Server: The server that implements the MCP protocol and communicates with the DocumentDB database. The application provides two MCP server implementations: one using HTTP and the other using SSE (Server-Sent Events).
4. LLM Provider: The language model provider (e.g., OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, GitHub Models) that generates responses based on the input from the MCP host.
5. DocumentDB Local: A database used to store the state of the agent and the tools.
6. Tools: A set of tools that the agent can use to perform actions, such as adding or listing items in a shopping list.

flowchart TD
    user(("fa:fa-users User"))
    host["VS Code, Copilot, LlamaIndex, Langchain..."]
    client[MCP SSE Client]
    clientHttp[MCP HTTP Client]
    server([MCP SSE Server])
    serverHttp([MCP HTTP Server])
    agent[Agent]
    AzureOpenAI([Azure OpenAI])
    GitHub([GitHub Models])
    OpenAI([OpenAI])
    
    tools["fa:fa-wrench Tools"]
    db[(DocumentDB Local)]

    user --> hostGroup 
    subgraph hostGroup["MCP Host"]
        host -.- client & clientHttp & agent
    end
    
    agent -.- AzureOpenAI & GitHub & OpenAI
    
    client a@ ---> |"Server Sent Events"| server
    clientHttp aa@ ---> |"Streamable HTTP"| serverHttp

    subgraph container["ACA Container (*)"]
      server -.- tools
      serverHttp -.- tools
      tools -.- add_todo 
      tools -.- list_todos
      tools -.- complete_todo
      tools -.- delete_todo
    end

    add_todo b@ --> db
    list_todos c@--> db
    complete_todo d@ --> db
    delete_todo e@ --> db
    
    %% styles

    classDef animate stroke-dasharray: 9,5,stroke-dashoffset: 900,animation: dash 25s linear infinite;
    classDef highlight fill:#9B77E8,color:#fff,stroke:#5EB4D8,stroke-width:2px
    
    class a animate
    class aa animate
    class b animate
    class c animate
    class d animate
    class e animate

    class container highlight

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MCP Server supported features and capabilities

This demo application provides two MCP server implementations: one using HTTP and the other using SSE (Server-Sent Events). The MCP host can connect to both servers, allowing you to choose the one that best fits your needs.

Feature	Completed
SSE (legacy)	✅
HTTP Streaming	✅
AuthN (token based)	wip
Tools	✅
Resources	#3
Prompts	#4
Sampling	#5

Quick Start (using Docker)

To get started with this project using Docker, follow the steps below:

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/Azure-Samples/azure-container-apps-ai-mcp.git
cd azure-container-apps-ai-mcp

2. Start the Docker containers:

docker-compose up

3. Access the MCP servers using VS Code built-in MPC support, see ./.vscode/mcp.json. All data will be persisted in the DocumentDB Local database. You can use the VS Code extension for DocumentDB to explore the database.

Local development

To get started with this project, follow the steps below:

Prerequisites

• Node.js and npm (version 22 or higher)
• Docker (recommended for running the MCP servers, and DocumentDB Local in Docker)
• An OpenAI compatible endpoint:
  • An OpenAI API key
  • Or, a GitHub token, if you want to use the GitHub models: https://gh.io/models
  • Or, if you are using Azure OpenAI, you need to have an Azure OpenAI resource and the corresponding endpoint.

Installation

1. Clone the repository.
2. Install the dependencies:

npm install --prefix mcp-host
npm install --prefix mcp-server-http
npm install --prefix mcp-server-sse

Configuring LLM providers to use

This sample supports the follwowing LLM providers:

Provider	Supported API
Azure OpenAI	Responses API
OpenAI	Responses API
GitHub Models	ChatCompletion API

Azure OpenAI

Note

Accessing Azure OpenAI using Managed Identity is not supported when running in a Docker container (locally). You can either run the code locally without Docker or use a different authentication method, such as AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY key authentication.

In order to use Keyless authentication, using Azure Managed Identity, you need to provide the AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT environment variable in the .env file:

AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT="https://<ai-foundry-openai-project>.openai.azure.com"
MODEL="gpt-4.1"

# (optional) Set the Azure OpenAI API key if you are not using Managed Identity
# AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY=your_azure_openai_api_key

And make sure to using the Azure CLI to log in to your Azure account and follow the instructions to selection your subscription:

az login

OpenAI

To use the OpenAI API, you need to set your OPENAI_API_KEY key in the .env file:

OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key
MODEL="gpt-5"

GitHub Models

To use the GitHub models, you need to set your GITHUB_TOKEN in the .env file:

GITHUB_TOKEN=your_github_token
MODEL="openai/gpt-5"

Running the MCP servers

Running in DevContainer (recommended)

This project includes a DevContainer configuration that allows you to run the MCP servers in a containerized environment. This is the recommended way to run the MCP servers, as it ensures that all dependencies are installed and configured correctly.

Once you have opened the project in a DevContainer, you can run the MCP servers using the following the Docker section below.

Running in Docker

You can run both MCP servers in Docker containers using the provided Docker Compose file. This is useful for testing and development purposes. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Make sure you have Docker installed on your machine. Type docker compose in your terminal to check if Docker Compose is installed.
2. Navigate to the root directory of the project and run the following command to build and start the containers:

docker compose up -d --build

This command will build and start the HTTP and SSE MCP servers, as well as the DocumentDB database container.

3. Access the MCP host terminal by running the following command in a separate terminal:

docker exec -it mcp-host bash

4. Inside the container, you can run the MCP host and interact with the LLM agent as described in the Usage section above.

Running outside of Docker

1. First, run the MCP servers, in separate terminals:

npm start --prefix mcp-server-http
npm start --prefix mcp-server-sse

Note

For demo purposes, the MCP host (see below) is configured to connect to both servers (on port 3000 and 3001). However, this is not a requirement, and you can choose which server to use. If a server is not available, the host will print an error and continue to scan for other servers. If no server is available, no tools will be available to the agent.

1. Run the MCP host in a separate terminal:

npm start --prefix mcp-host

You should be able to use the MCP host to interat with the LLM agent. Try asking question about adding or listing items in a shopping list. The host will then try to fetch and call tools from the MCP servers.

Debugging and inspection

You can use the DEBUG environment variable to enable verbose logging for the MCP host:

DEBUG=mcp:* npm start --prefix mcp-host

Debugging is enabled by default for both MCP servers.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.