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# MCP Client Configuration with Azure App Configuration
This project illustrates how to use Azure App Configuration to dynamically configure and connect to different Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, enabling smooth transition from development to production environments without application redeployment.
## Overview
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) enables AI-powered applications to connect to various AI model servers. While developers typically use local MCP configurations during development (e.g., VS Code's mcp.json), this library provides a way to:
1. Store MCP server configurations in Azure App Configuration
2. Load and parse these configurations at runtime
3. Switch between different MCP servers dynamically
4. Refresh configurations without application restart
## Benefits
- **Development to Production Continuity**: Use the same MCP configurations across development and production environments
- **Dynamic Configuration**: Change MCP servers without redeploying your application
- **Centralized Management**: Manage all your MCP configurations in one place
- **Auto-refresh**: Configurations are automatically refreshed at configurable intervals
## Moving AI Services to Production
Transitioning AI services powered by models and MCP servers from development to production environments presents unique challenges:
### Key Considerations
1. **Scalability**: Production environments often require handling multiple concurrent model invocations
- Azure App Configuration lets you manage different server tiers for development vs. production
- You can switch to high-performance MCP server configurations for production workloads
2. **Security**:
- Development environments typically use local models with limited access controls
- Production requires proper authentication, authorization, and data encryption
- Azure App Configuration allows you to store secure connection strings and credentials separately from your code
3. **Cost Management**:
- Development often uses smaller, less expensive models
- Production may require more powerful models with different pricing structures
- Centralized configuration allows for quick adaptation to budget constraints
4. **Availability and Reliability**:
- Production MCP servers should be deployed with redundancy and failover capabilities
- This solution enables configuration of primary and fallback MCP servers
- Auto-refresh ensures your application always has the latest server information
### Deployment Strategies
1. **Blue-Green Deployment**:
- Maintain two identical production environments (Blue and Green)
- Test new model servers in the inactive environment
- Switch traffic by updating Azure App Configuration when ready
2. **Canary Releases**:
- Deploy new model server configurations to a small subset of users
- Monitor performance and accuracy before full rollout
- Gradually increase traffic by adjusting configurations without code changes
3. **A/B Testing Different Models**:
- Compare different model configurations in production
- Analyze performance metrics to determine optimal setup
- Easily switch between configurations based on results
## Setup Azure App Configuration
1. Create an Azure App Configuration store in the Azure Portal
2. Add your MCP server configurations as key-value pairs:
Example: Azure MCP Server (stdio type)
Key: MCP:AzureMCPServer
Value:
```json
{
"name": "Azure MCP Server",
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@azure/mcp@latest",
"server",
"start"
]
}
```
Example: Remote SSE Server
Key: MCP:Fetch
Value:
```json
{
"name": "Fetch",
"type": "sse",
"url": "https://remote.mcpservers.org/fetch"
}
```
## Implementation Best Practices
1. **Environment-Specific Configurations**:
- Use labels in Azure App Configuration to separate dev/test/prod environments
- Example: `MCP:AzureMCPServer;env=production` vs `MCP:AzureMCPServer;env=development`
2. **Monitoring and Observability**:
- Add telemetry to track model performance in production
- Use configuration to enable/disable detailed logging
3. **Rollback Strategy**:
- Maintain previous working configurations with version labels
- Implement quick rollback procedures for production issues
4. **Configuration Validation**:
- Validate new configurations before applying them to production
- Implement circuit breakers to prevent cascading failures
