An evening for code and a month for the rest: building your own MCP server

The author shares their experience in developing a custom MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for their product. While writing and testing the code with the help of an AI agent took only one evening, the bulk of the work—lasting about a month—was dedicated to non-coding tasks. This included architectural decisions, defining the scope and visibility of tools, and addressing unforeseen requirements that only emerged through external user feedback. The author highlights that many aspects of development could not be planned in advance and were discovered only during real-world operation. The article emphasizes that building modern integrations for AI agents requires not just programming skills, but also a deep understanding of user experience and the flexibility to adapt interaction interfaces between models and external services.