azure-webapp-mcp by unic - MCP Server

azure-webapp-mcp

Template Repository to use Azure Web Apps as MCP Server (Python FastMCP)

For more details, see: Azure Web App

For the Azure Web App approach of hosting a Python MCP Server, we're more flexible and we can use the officially supported FastMCP library for this:

https://github.com/jlowin/fastmcp

Prerequisites

Python version 3.11 or higher
uv (https://docs.astral.sh/uv/): brew install uv
Azure CLI
The easiest is to install the Azure CLI Tools using Homebrew:
- Azure CLI: brew update && brew install azure-cli
- Azure Developer CLI: brew tap azure/azd && brew install azd
Docker desktop https://docs.docker.com/desktop/setup/install/mac-install/ or Colima (MIT License)
```
brew install colima
brew install docker  # docker is still required for colima
```

For Colima you also need BuildX:

brew install docker-buildx

Then to ensure Buildx plugins are available in the docker CLI, especially for Colima, you need to update ~/.docker/config.json and add this:

"cliPluginsExtraDirs": ["$HOMEBREW_PREFIX/lib/docker/cli-plugins"]

You probably need to replace $HOMEBREW_PREFIX with the output of brew --prefix

Setup locally

Create a repo based on our template: https://github.com/unic/azure-webapp-mcp
Run uv sync

Then:

uv run uvicorn server:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

to start the server locally at port 8000.

You can then run uv run client.py in a new terminal to see if it works:

CallToolResult(content=[TextContent(type='text', text='Hello, John!', annotations=None, meta=None)], structured_content={'result': 'Hello, John!'}, data='Hello, John!', is_error=False)

Local Debugging

You can run the local server in debug mode in VSCode (instead of using uv run…), set a breakpoint somewhere and then again run the client in another terminal. The execution should stop at the breakpoint.

Setup Resources in Azure

Follow these steps in order:

Deploy to Azure

Once all resources are created, we can deploy the MCP server to our Azure Web App:

./deploy.sh

If there is an issue with the permissions, you might need to run:

chmod +x deploy.sh

It will then ask you to login, choose a subscription and enter:

Name of Resource Group
Name of the Container Registry
Name of the Web App
Tag of your new docker image
Name of the new docker image

Once deployed, restart the Web App in the portal.

Testing the deployed MCP-Server

Now you can test the deployed Server in different ways, for example:

Using the client.py

Change the URL to the domain of the web app, e.g.:

https://test-mcp-web-app-gzfkgbgefud0cbc3.switzerlandnorth-01.azurewebsites.net/mcp/

Using VSCode

CMD+Shift+P using "MCP: Add Server", HTTP, enter the whole url with /mcp/ at the end, give it a name, and choose workspace or local. Then in agent mode in the chat window you can test it. The entry in the config in VSCode should look like this:

"test-mcp-web-app": {
    "url": "https://test-mcp-web-app-gzfkgbgefud0cbc3.switzerlandnorth-01.azurewebsites.net/mcp/",
    "type": "http"
}

Using Claude desktop

Open the claude_desktop_config.json and add this to the "mcpServers" object:

"test-mcp-web-app": {
  "command": "npx",
  "args": [
    "mcp-remote",
    "https://test-mcp-web-app-gzfkgbgefud0cbc3.switzerlandnorth-01.azurewebsites.net/mcp/"
  ]
}

Using Copilot Studio

Following this guide: https://uniccom.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/INNOLAB/pages/575636509/Copilot+Studio+MCP, you can add it to Copilot Studio.