Model Context Protocol · Python
You already call the Claude API. In 2 to 3 hours you will ship a CLI chatbot with tools, resources, and prompts, and know which primitive to reach for on the next integration.
Most MCP intros give you one side of the protocol or none of the decisions. This gives you both sides and the decision framework, from a Python project you run locally on lesson two.
Taught by Edwin Ashdown. Founder of AIFirstPartner, 12 production AI systems shipped.
Full course, free. No subscription. All 4 modules included.
Why GitHub, AWS, and Anthropic itself are shipping MCP servers, and why hand-rolling your next integration is the slow path.
3 lessons
Turn two Python functions into MCP tools with one decorator, then prove they work in the Inspector before the chatbot sees them.
4 lessons
Wire the client to your server, add resources so your app controls context, and add prompts so users trigger tuned workflows by slash command.
5 lessons
One question to pick between tools, resources, and prompts on every MCP integration after this one: who is in control, the model, the app, or the user?
2 lessons
Edwin Ashdown founded AIFirstPartner and has shipped 12 production AI systems for clients in government, legal, and enterprise. He is fractional CTO at Speculo, a cyber risk software company, and manages cloud and data platform engineering for a large Australian government department supporting 20+ agencies across the portfolio.
He publishes his build process at 150days.aifirstpartner.com.
This course is the playbook he uses when onboarding a team onto MCP.
The docs are excellent reference once you know what you are looking for. This course is the 2 to 3 hours where you build both sides of the protocol on a real project, so the reference makes sense when you go back to it. If you would rather spend a weekend stitching fragments together, the docs are free.
If you have already shipped an MCP server to production, skip it. If you are brand new to Python or have never called the Claude API, start with a Claude API primer first. This course assumes both and gets straight to MCP.
You should be comfortable with Python and have experience making API calls to Claude. Familiarity with async/await and decorators is helpful but not required. The course explains MCP-specific patterns as you encounter them.
A CLI-based chatbot that implements both an MCP client and an MCP server. You will define tools (document read/edit), resources (document listing and fetching), and prompts (a /format command), then test everything with the MCP Inspector and the CLI.
Tool use is how Claude calls functions you define. MCP is about who defines those functions. With MCP, someone else (often the service provider) has already built and tested the tools, so you just connect to their MCP server instead of writing everything yourself.
Most developers complete the course in 2 to 3 hours, including hands-on exercises. The first module takes about 30 minutes.
No. Introduction to MCP is independent. This course is not an Anthropic product and has not been reviewed or endorsed by them.