ravikalla/mcp-small-business-customer-care

🏪 Small Business Customer Care MCP Server

A Spring AI-powered MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for managing small business customer care operations through AI assistants like Claude Desktop.

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💬 See It In Action

Here's what you can do with this MCP server through natural conversation with Claude Desktop:

🎯 The Power: Natural language → Structured business operations → Real data management

⚡ Claude Desktop Setup

Step 1: Download Claude Desktop

Download and install Claude Desktop from the official website:

• Official Download: https://claude.ai/download
• Available for macOS, Windows, and Linux

Download Claude Desktop from the official website

Step 2: Build the MCP Server

# Clone and build the project
git clone https://github.com/ravikalla/mcp-small-business-customer-care.git
cd mcp-small-business-customer-care
mvn clean package

# Verify JAR creation
ls -la target/small-business-customer-care-1.0.0.jar

Step 3: Configure Claude Desktop

Open the Claude Desktop configuration file:

📍 Configuration File Locations:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

💡 Tip: On macOS, you can quickly open the config file:

open "~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json"

Add this configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "small-business-customer-care": {
      "command": "java",
      "args": [
        "-jar",
        "/absolute/path/to/your/mcp-small-business-customer-care/target/small-business-customer-care-1.0.0.jar"
      ],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Example configuration file with MCP server entry

⚠️ Important Notes:

• Replace /absolute/path/to/your/ with your actual project path
• Use absolute paths only (e.g., /Users/john/projects/mcp-small-business-customer-care/target/...)
• On Windows, use forward slashes: C:/Users/john/projects/...

Step 4: Restart Claude Desktop

Completely quit and reopen Claude Desktop after updating the configuration:

• macOS: Cmd+Q to quit, then reopen from Applications
• Windows: Right-click system tray icon → Exit, then reopen
• Alternative: Close all Claude Desktop windows and reopen the application

Use Cmd+Q to quit Claude Desktop on macOS

The MCP server should now be available.

Step 5: Verify Connection

1. Check Developer Settings: Go to Claude Desktop Settings → Developer tab to see your MCP server running

The MCP server running successfully in Claude Desktop's developer settings

2. Test the tools: Try asking:
   • "Show me all businesses"
   • "What business tools are available?"

You should see the business management tools working! 🎉

Example conversation showing the MCP tools in action

📚 Additional Resources:

• MCP.so Community Platform - Our server listing
• Claude Desktop MCP Documentation
• MCP Troubleshooting Guide
• Spring AI MCP Documentation

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Java 17 or higher
• Maven 3.6 or higher
• Claude Desktop (for AI assistant integration)

Installation & Build

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ravikalla/mcp-small-business-customer-care.git
cd mcp-small-business-customer-care

# Build the application
mvn clean package

# Verify the JAR was created
ls -la target/small-business-customer-care-1.0.0.jar

Testing the Server

# Test initialization
echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2024-11-05"},"id":0}' | java -jar target/small-business-customer-care-1.0.0.jar

# Test business listing
echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"list_businesses","arguments":{}},"id":2}' | java -jar target/small-business-customer-care-1.0.0.jar

🔧 Claude Desktop Integration

Add this configuration to your Claude Desktop config file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "small-business-customer-care": {
      "command": "java",
      "args": [
        "-jar",
        "/path/to/your/mcp-small-business-customer-care/target/small-business-customer-care-1.0.0.jar"
      ],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Important: Replace /path/to/your/ with the actual absolute path to your project directory.

Restart Claude Desktop completely after updating the configuration.

🛠️ Available Business Tools

The server provides 6 MCP tools for complete business management:

JSON API Examples

// Create new business
{
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "create_business",
    "arguments": {
      "name": "Ravi Restaurant",
      "category": "Restaurant", 
      "address": "789 Pine Rd, Springfield",
      "phone": "555-0106",
      "email": "info@ravirestaurant.com",
      "description": "Family-friendly restaurant. Hours: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM daily",
      "rating": 4.5
    }
  }
}

// Search businesses
{
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "search_businesses",
    "arguments": { "query": "restaurant" }
  }
}

🏗️ Technical Architecture

Built with Spring AI MCP Framework:

• Uses spring-ai-mcp-server-spring-boot-starter for robust MCP protocol handling
• Annotation-driven tool definitions with @Tool
• Automatic tool discovery via ToolCallbacks.from()
• Clean STDIO transport with proper logging configuration

@Service
public class BusinessService {
    @Tool(name = "list_businesses", description = "Get a list of all businesses")
    public List<Business> listBusinesses() { ... }
    
    @Tool(name = "search_businesses", description = "Search businesses by name, category, or description")
    public List<Business> searchBusinesses(String query) { ... }
    // ... other tool methods
}

🧪 Development & Testing

# Run all tests
mvn test

# Start in development mode  
mvn spring-boot:run

# Build for production
mvn clean package -DskipTests

Sample Data: The server comes pre-loaded with 5 businesses: Joe's Coffee Shop, Tech Repair Solutions, Green Thumb Landscaping, Bella's Boutique, Mike's Auto Repair

🔧 Troubleshooting

Server Not Connecting:

1. Verify Java 17+: java -version
2. Check JAR exists: ls -la target/small-business-customer-care-1.0.0.jar
3. Test manually with echo commands above
4. Restart Claude Desktop completely

Build Issues:

mvn clean package -DskipTests  # Skip tests if failing
mvn clean package -X          # Verbose output

Path Issues:

• Use absolute paths in Claude Desktop configuration
• Escape spaces with quotes: "/path with spaces/"

📚 Resources

• Model Context Protocol Specification
• Spring AI Documentation
• Claude Desktop MCP Setup

📄 License

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.

🌐 Community

This MCP server is part of the growing MCP.so community!

• ⭐ Star the project if you find it useful
• 🐛 Report issues on GitHub
• 💡 Suggest features for future versions
• 🤝 Contribute to make it even better

Discover more MCP servers: Browse the MCP.so directory to find other amazing MCP servers for different use cases.

Ready to use? Follow the Claude Desktop integration steps above and start managing your business data with AI! 🚀