frontmcp-development

FrontMCP Development Router

Entry point for building MCP server components. This skill helps you find the right development reference based on what you want to build. It does not teach implementation details itself — it routes you to the specific reference (under references/) that does.

When to Use This Skill

Must Use

• Starting a FrontMCP development task and unsure which component type to build (tool vs resource vs prompt vs agent)
• Onboarding to the FrontMCP development model and need an overview of all building blocks
• Planning a feature that may require multiple component types working together

Recommended

• Looking up the canonical name of a development reference to install or search
• Comparing component types to decide which fits your use case
• Understanding how tools, resources, prompts, agents, and skills relate to each other

Skip When

• You already know which component to build (go directly to create-tool, create-resource, etc.)
• You need to configure server settings, not build components (see frontmcp-config)
• You need to deploy or build, not develop (see frontmcp-deployment)

Decision: Use this skill when you need to figure out WHAT to build. Open the matching reference under references/ directly when you already know.

Prerequisites

• A scaffolded FrontMCP project (see frontmcp-setup if you don't have one).
• Familiarity with TypeScript decorators and Zod schemas — every component is decorator-driven and validates I/O via Zod.
• Decide whether you're adding to an existing @App or composing a new one (multi-app projects: see multi-app-composition).

Steps

This is a router skill. The "steps" here are how to choose the right reference (a markdown file under references/), not how to implement a component.

1. Identify the component type using the Scenario Routing Table below.
2. Open the matching reference (e.g. references/create-tool.md, references/create-resource.md) and follow its Steps section.
3. Compose, if needed: most non-trivial features need two or more components (e.g. tool + provider, resource + adapter). Read each reference independently before wiring them together.
4. Test before integration (frontmcp-testing) — every component type has a unit-test recipe.

Scenario Routing Table

Recommended Reading Order

1. decorators-guide — Start here to understand the full decorator landscape
2. create-tool — The most common building block (top-level skill — covers schemas, DI, errors, throttling, auth, UI widgets, annotations); learn tools first
3. create-resource — Expose data alongside tools
4. create-prompt — Add reusable conversation templates
5. create-provider — Share services across tools and resources via DI
6. create-agent — Build autonomous AI loops (advanced)
7. create-job / create-workflow — Background processing (advanced)
8. create-skill / create-skill-with-tools — Author your own skills (meta)
9. official-adapters / openapi-adapter — Integrate external APIs via OpenAPI specs
10. official-plugins — Add caching, session memory, feature flags, and more

Cross-Cutting Patterns

Common Patterns

Verification Checklist

Architecture

• Each component type matches its semantic purpose (action=tool, data=resource, template=prompt)
• Shared services use @Provider with DI tokens, not module-level singletons
• Components are registered in @App arrays, apps composed in @FrontMcp

Development Workflow

• Files follow <name>.<type>.ts naming convention
• Each component has a corresponding .spec.ts test file
• decorators-guide consulted for unfamiliar decorator options

Troubleshooting

Examples

Each reference has matching examples under examples/<reference>/:

create-adapter

create-agent-llm-config

create-agent

create-job

create-plugin-hooks

create-plugin

create-prompt

create-provider

create-resource

create-skill-with-tools

create-skill

create-tool (migrated to top-level skill)

The full @Tool({...}) surface — including the former create-tool-annotations, create-tool-output-schema-types, and create-tool-ui references — now lives in the top-level create-tool skill. See its examples/ directory for 25 combination examples covering schemas, DI, errors, throttling, auth, availability, elicitation, UI widgets, annotations, examples metadata, and job hand-off.

create-workflow

decorators-guide

openapi-adapter

official-plugins

Accessing This Skill

Skills are distributed as plain SKILL.md files plus a sibling references/ and examples/ tree, so consumers can pick whichever access mode fits:

The catalog itself is not an MCP server. The skill:// URIs only resolve when a server has been configured to host this skill.

Reference

• FrontMCP Overview
• Related skills: create-tool (top-level), create-resource, create-prompt, create-agent, create-provider, create-job, create-workflow, create-skill, create-skill-with-tools, decorators-guide, official-adapters, openapi-adapter, official-plugins