Fastmcp MCP Server by PrefectHQ
🚀 The fast, Pythonic way to build MCP servers and clients.
Fastmcp is an open-source mcp server by PrefectHQ, written mainly in Python, with 28,258 GitHub stars and the Apache-2.0 license. Its code was last updated Nov 1, 2026. The latest PyPI release is fastmcp 4.2.0, published Nov 13, 2026, with 15,799,833 downloads last week.
FastMCP 🚀
<strong>Move fast and make things.</strong>
Made with 💙 by Prefect
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</div>The Model Context Protocol (MCP) connects LLMs to tools and data. FastMCP is a full MCP application framework for servers, clients, and interactive apps. A server starts with ordinary Python:
from fastmcp import FastMCP
mcp = FastMCP("Demo 🚀")
@mcp.tool
def add(a: int, b: int) -> int:
"""Add two numbers"""
return a + b
if __name__ == "__main__":
mcp.run()
Why FastMCP
Building an effective MCP application is harder than it looks. FastMCP handles all of it. Declare a tool with a Python function, and the schema, validation, and documentation are generated automatically. Connect to a server with a URL, and transport negotiation, authentication, and protocol lifecycle are managed for you. You focus on your logic, and the MCP part just works: with FastMCP, best practices are built in.
That's why FastMCP is the standard framework for working with MCP. FastMCP 1.0 was incorporated into the official MCP Python SDK in 2024. Today, the actively maintained standalone project is downloaded a million times a day, and some version of FastMCP powers 70% of MCP servers across all languages.
FastMCP has three pillars:
<table> <tr> <td align="center" valign="top" width="33%"> <a href="https://gofastmcp.com/servers/server"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PrefectHQ/fastmcp/main/docs/assets/images/servers-card.png" alt="Servers" /> <br /><strong>Servers</strong> </a> <br />Expose tools, resources, and prompts to LLMs. </td> <td align="center" valign="top" width="33%"> <a href="https://gofastmcp.com/apps/overview"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PrefectHQ/fastmcp/main/docs/assets/images/apps-card.png" alt="Apps" /> <br /><strong>Apps</strong> </a> <br />Give your tools interactive UIs rendered directly in the conversation. </td> <td align="center" valign="top" width="33%"> <a href="https://gofastmcp.com/clients/client"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PrefectHQ/fastmcp/main/docs/assets/images/clients-card.png" alt="Clients" /> <br /><strong>Clients</strong> </a> <br />Connect to any MCP server — local or remote, programmatic or CLI. </td> </tr> </table>Servers wrap your Python functions into MCP-compliant tools, resources, and prompts. Clients connect to any server with full protocol support. And Apps give your tools interactive UIs rendered directly in the conversation.
Building in TypeScript? FastMCP for TypeScript is the official counterpart, built and maintained by the same team. Same pillars, same ideas, npm install @prefecthq/fastmcp-ts.
Ready to build? Start with the installation guide or jump straight to the quickstart.
<a id="scale-mcp-with-horizon"></a>
Scale MCP with FastMCP Gateway
FastMCP handles the MCP application layer. FastMCP Gateway is the enterprise MCP gateway for scaling servers and tools across teams, with centralized governance over how they are deployed, discovered, secured, and used.
FastMCP and FastMCP Gateway are built by the same team at Prefect.
Deploy FastMCP servers from GitHub with branch previews and instant rollback. Create a private registry of every MCP your company uses. Secure access with SSO and tool-level RBAC. Get audit logs, observability, and governance across your MCP stack. Remix approved tools into purpose-built endpoints for teams and agents.
Start with FastMCP. Scale with FastMCP Gateway →
Installation
We recommend adding FastMCP to your project with uv:
uv add fastmcp
For full installation instructions, including verification and upgrading, see the Installation Guide.
Upgrading? We have guides for:
- Upgrading from FastMCP 3
- Upgrading from FastMCP 2
- Upgrading from MCP SDK v1 or v2
- Upgrading from the low-level SDK v1 or v2
📚 Documentation
FastMCP's complete documentation is available at gofastmcp.com, including detailed guides, API references, and advanced patterns.
Documentation is also available in llms.txt format, which is a simple markdown standard that LLMs can consume easily:
llms.txtis essentially a sitemap, listing all the pages in the documentation.llms-full.txtcontains the entire documentation. Note this may exceed the context window of your LLM.
Give your coding agent llms.txt as its starting point. See Coding Agents for version-matched documentation and the optional server authoring skill.
Community: Join our Discord server to connect with other FastMCP developers and share what you're building.
Contributing
Start with CONTRIBUTING.md for accepted contributions and the issue-assignment workflow, then follow the Contributing Guide for setup and validation. Agents should read AGENTS.md.
Fastmcp alternatives
View more →Similar mcp servers in Coding Agents, ranked by GitHub stars. Compare licence, recent activity and scan status before you choose.
| Name | Stars | Licence | Last updated | Scan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fastmcp (this page) PrefectHQ | 28k | Apache-2.0 | Nov 1, 2026 | Scanned, no flagged issues |
| Context Mode mksglu | 33k | None found | Nov 1, 2026 | Not scanned yet |
| Serena oraios | 31k | None found | Oct 28, 2026 | Not scanned yet |
| Nuclear nukeop | 19k | AGPL-3.0 | Nov 1, 2026 | Scanned, no flagged issues |
| MCP For Beginners microsoft | 18k | MIT | Oct 30, 2026 | Scanned, no flagged issues |
| Trail Code trailhq | 11k | MIT | Oct 31, 2026 | Scanned, no flagged issues |