MCP Best Practices
Production-ready patterns for deploying, securing, and scaling Model Context Protocol servers in real-world environments.
Security Best Practices
Credential Management
❌ Never Hardcode Secrets
✅ Use settings.local.json
Principle of Least Privilege
Database Access:
Filesystem Restrictions
API Token Scoping
GitHub Token - Minimal Scopes:
Configuration Management
Environment-Specific Configurations
Development:
Production:
Team Collaboration
Shared Configuration (in git):
Personal Credentials (not in git):
Document Required Variables:
Performance Optimization
Connection Pooling
For database MCP servers, use connection pooling:
Caching Strategies
Custom MCP Server with Caching:
Rate Limiting
Error Handling
Graceful Degradation
Logging and Monitoring
Development Workflow
Local Testing
CI/CD Integration
Monitoring and Observability
Health Checks
Metrics Collection
Documentation Standards
Server Documentation
README Template
Common Anti-Patterns
❌ Anti-Pattern 1: Over-Permissive Access
Why Bad: Gives access to entire filesystem including system files.
Solution: Limit to specific directories.
❌ Anti-Pattern 2: Shared Credentials
Why Bad: Can't audit who did what, security risk if leaked.
Solution: Each developer uses personal tokens.
❌ Anti-Pattern 3: No Error Handling
Why Bad: Crashes server on errors.
Solution: Wrap in try-catch, return meaningful errors.
❌ Anti-Pattern 4: Synchronous Blocking Operations
Why Bad: Blocks event loop, slows down all requests.
Solution: Use async operations.
Checklist for Production
Before Deploying
- Credentials in
.local.json(not in git) - Least privilege access configured
- Error handling implemented
- Logging configured
- Documentation written
- Tests passing
- Rate limiting in place (if calling external APIs)
- Health checks implemented
- Monitoring set up
Security Review
- No hardcoded secrets
- API tokens scoped appropriately
- Database access is read-only (if applicable)
- Filesystem access limited
- Input validation on all parameters
- Output sanitization
Performance Review
- Caching implemented where appropriate
- Connection pooling configured
- Async operations used
- Rate limits respect API quotas
- Resource cleanup (close connections, etc.)
Resources
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