[Technology preview] Creating MCP tools

Use IBM API Studio to generate MCP tools from your existing OpenAPI definitions.

About this task

While creating MCP tools, you can choose specific operations to expose, and IBM API Studio automatically packages the tools into a runnable MCP server.

Important: This feature is available as a tech preview and may change in future releases. Only OpenAPI 3.0 definitions are supported.

Procedure

  1. From the home page, select an API project that contains the OpenAPI specification file you want to use for MCP tool generation.
  2. Select the OpenAPI specification file from the Explorer.
  3. Click Create MCP tools.
  4. On the Create MCP tools page, review the list of paths and operations. Select the operations that you want to include in the MCP tool, then click Continue.
  5. On the Add details page, enter the required metadata for the MCP server and tool files.
    • Name. Enter a name for the MCP server and tool.
    • Namespace. Specify the namespace for the MCP server and the tool.
    • API version. Enter the version of the API.
    • Tags. Add any relevant tags for discovery or classification.
  6. Click Next.
    IBM API Studio generates the MCP server and MCP tool files based on the operations you selected.
  7. Select the generated MCP server file and click Download MCP server.

    A .zip file is downloaded to your local system. This file contains:

    • A startup file for the MCP server, specific to your operating system
    • A resources folder that contains the tool definitions

What to do next

  • Run the startup file from a terminal or command prompt window, depending on your operating system. This action launches the MCP server.

    When the server starts, it registers all the selected tools. The server exposes each selected path from the OpenAPI definition as an MCP tool.

  • After the server is up, you can see all selected operations registered as MCP tools. AI agents can inspect and invoke these tools. While IBM API Studio does not display the active tools directly, you can access them through agents such as Claude Desktop or other AI platforms that support MCP integration.