Why You Should Build an MCP Server This Weekend

I haven’t seen an opportunity this wide open since the early days of mobile apps.

If you’re a coder, a side-hustler, or just someone messing around with AI, you need to jump on this.

It’s like stumbling into a goldmine where nobody’s staked a claim yet.

MCP servers?

They’re the secret sauce letting AI do real-world stuff — like pulling data, syncing apps, or automating tasks. And the best part?

You can build one in a weekend and start cashing in.

I was scrolling X, and every other developer was buzzing about Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers.

They’re calling it a “goldrush” with “zero competition.”

Cloudflare and Anthropic are throwing their weight behind it, and Stripe’s making it stupid-easy to charge for access.

So, here’s my dead-simple, three-step plan to get you in on this before it gets crowded. Grab a coffee, and let’s do this.

What’s an MCP Server?

You’re chatting with an AI like Claude, but instead of just giving you answers, it does things. Like, it grabs prices from Amazon, updates your Trello board, or finds the perfect UI button from a design library. MCP servers are the middlemen making that happen. They’re like the USB port connecting AI to the real world — simple, standardized, and crazy powerful.

Why should you care? Because:

• You can whip one up in a day or two.
• People (and soon AI agents) will pay to use it.
• The market’s brand-new, so you’re not fighting tech giants.
• It’s fun! I built a toy MCP server last weekend to scrape coffee shop ratings, and I’m already dreaming up ways to sell it.

Step 1: Hunt Down a Problem That Sucks to Solve

First, you gotta find a problem that’s a total pain in the butt. I call these “painkiller” problems — stuff people hate doing manually. Maybe it’s cleaning up messy CSV files, scraping job listings, or linking Slack to your CRM. If your MCP server saves someone a headache, they’ll throw money at you.

For example, I was helping a friend with her Etsy shop, and she was spending hours checking competitor prices. I thought, “What if an MCP server could scrape those prices automatically?”

This grabs a price from a webpage and spits it out clean. You could turn it into an MCP server for AI agents to call when comparing prices. Not sure what problem to tackle? Hop on Reddit’s r/indiehackers or X and ask, “What’s a task you hate?” I saw a thread last week where someone begged for a tool to sync Notion with Jira. Boom — there’s your idea.

Step 2: Build It with Cloudflare (It’s Easier Than You Think)

Now, let’s turn that idea into an MCP server. Cloudflare’s making this so easy it feels like cheating. They’ve got one-click deployment, so you don’t need to mess with local servers or complicated setups. Users can just hit your server’s URL, and it works. No headaches.

npm create cloudflare@latest -- my-mcp-server --template=cloudflare/ai/demos/remote-mcp-authless

To add your own tools to the MCP server, define each tool inside the init() method of src/index.ts using this.server.tool(...).

You can connect to your MCP server using the Cloudflare AI Playground, which acts as a remote MCP client:

1. Visit https://playground.ai.cloudflare.com/
2. Enter the URL of your deployed MCP server:
   https://remote-mcp-server-authless.<your-account>.workers.dev/sse
3. Once connected, you’ll be able to use your MCP tools directly from the playground!

Connect Claude Desktop to Your MCP Server

You can connect Claude Desktop to a local or remote MCP server using the mcp-remote proxy.

Steps to Connect:

1. Follow Anthropic’s Quickstart Guide to set up the required environment.
2. Open Claude Desktop, then go to:
   Settings > Developer > Edit Config
3. Replace or update the configuration with the following:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "calculator": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-remote",
        "http://localhost:8787/sse"
        // or use your remote server URL:
        // "https://remote-mcp-server-authless.your-account.workers.dev/sse"
      ]
    }
  }
}

You can write your server in Python, but I’ll show you a TypeScript example using Cloudflare’s MCP SDK because it’s newbie-friendly. First, set up a project:

mkdir my-mcp-server
cd my-mcp-server
npm init -y
npm install @modelcontextprotocol/sdk

Create a file called index.ts:

import { McpServer, StdioServerTransport } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk';
import fetch from 'node-fetch'; // Make sure to run: npm install node-fetch

const server = new McpServer({
  name: 'price-grabber',
  version: '0.0.1',
  capabilities: {
    prompts: {},
    resources: {},
    tools: {
      grab_price: {
        description: 'Gets a product price from a URL',
        parameters: {
          url: { type: 'string', description: 'Product page URL' }
        },
        handler: async ({ url }) => {
          try {
            const response = await fetch(url);
            const text = await response.text();

            // TODO: Add actual scraping logic here (e.g., using cheerio)
            // Example:
            // const $ = cheerio.load(text);
            // const price = $('selector-for-price').text().trim();

            return { price: '$49.99' }; // Placeholder result
          } catch (error) {
            return { error: `Failed to fetch or parse the URL: ${error.message}` };
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
});

async function main() {
  const transport = new StdioServerTransport();
  await server.start(transport);
}

main();

This sets up a basic MCP server called price-grabber. The grab_price tool takes a URL and returns a price (we’re faking it here, but you’d plug in the Python scraping code). To deploy, use Cloudflare Workers:

npx wrangler deploy

Boom — your server’s live with a public URL. Test it with Anthropic’s MCP Inspector to make sure it’s not acting wonky. Cloudflare’s all-in on MCPs, so their docs are solid, and their platform can handle a ton of traffic without you sweating it.

Step 3: Cash In with Stripe

Here’s where it gets juicy: making bank. Stripe dropped an MCP payment integration that lets you charge for access in, like, 20 lines of code. I nearly spilled my coffee when I saw how simple it was. You can set up a paywall without building a whole billing system.

Install Stripe’s Node.js library:

npm install stripe

Tweak your index.ts to check for a valid subscription.

This checks if the user’s apiKey (their Stripe subscription ID) is good before letting them use the server. Set up a subscription form on your site with Stripe Checkout, and you’re golden. I’d start charging $5-$10 a month for, say, 1,000 requests. Indie hackers on microns.io say low prices hook early users fast.

How to Get Eyeballs on Your Server

Built it? Monetized it? Now you gotta get it out there. Anthropic’s “Integrations” platform is a big deal — it’s like a proto-app store for MCP servers. I’m betting it’ll be a full-blown marketplace soon, where AI agents can find and buy your server without you doing a thing. Cloudflare’s also pushing MCPs hard, so your server’s got a shot at being featured.

For now, hustle a bit. Share your server on GitHub (check out the Awesome MCP Servers repo), tweet about it with #MCP or #BuildInPublic, or post on IndieHackers.

Why You Gotta Move Fast

MCP servers are fresh — Anthropic launched them in late 2024, and the market’s wide open. Look at what’s already out there:

• Blender MCP: Turns text into 3D models. Insanely cool.
• GitHub MCP: Automates repo chores like PR reviews.
• Firecrawl MCP: Makes web scraping a breeze.

Watch Out for These Gotchas

It’s not all sunshine. A few things to keep in mind:

• Security: Sloppy code can let hackers sneak in. Always check inputs and sandbox your server.
• Compatibility: Claude’s the MCP king right now, but others are catching up. Stick with Claude for now.
• Marketing: The app store’s not fully baked, so you’ll need to shout about your server on X or Reddit.

Your Weekend Game Plan

Wanna give it a shot? Here’s how to crush it by Monday:

• Saturday AM: Brainstorm a problem. Scroll X for ideas (someone’s always whining about manual data entry).
• Saturday PM: Code your MCP server. Use the price-grabber example and tweak it.
• Sunday AM: Deploy with Cloudflare. It’s literally one command.
• Sunday PM: Add Stripe and tweet your server. Tag me — I wanna see it!

I built my book shop MCP in 10 hours with zero MCP experience, mostly because I leaned on Cursor to write the tricky bits. You got this.

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