Contributing to Model Context Protocol Java SDK

Thank you for your interest in contributing to the Model Context Protocol Java SDK! This document outlines how to contribute to this project.

Prerequisites

The following software is required to work on the codebase:

Java 17 or above
Docker
npx

Getting Started

Fork the repository
Clone your fork:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/java-sdk.git
cd java-sdk

Build from source:

./mvnw clean install -DskipTests # skip the tests
./mvnw test # run tests

Reporting Issues

Please create an issue in the repository if you discover a bug or would like to propose an enhancement. Bug reports should have a reproducer in the form of a code sample or a repository attached that the maintainers or contributors can work with to address the problem.

Making Changes

Create a new branch:

git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name

Make your changes
Validate your changes:

./mvnw clean test

Change Proposal Guidelines

Principles of MCP

Simple + Minimal: It is much easier to add things to the codebase than it is to remove them. To maintain simplicity, we keep a high bar for adding new concepts and primitives as each addition requires maintenance and compatibility consideration.
Concrete: Code changes need to be based on specific usage and implementation challenges and not on speculative ideas. Most importantly, the SDK is meant to implement the MCP specification.

Submitting Changes

For non-trivial changes, please clarify with the maintainers in an issue whether you can contribute the change and the desired scope of the change.
For trivial changes (for example a couple of lines or documentation changes) there is no need to open an issue first.
Push your changes to your fork.
Submit a pull request to the main repository.
Follow the pull request template.
Wait for review.
For any follow-up work, please add new commits instead of force-pushing. This will allow the reviewer to focus on incremental changes instead of having to restart the review process.

Code of Conduct

This project follows a Code of Conduct. Please review it in CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md.

Questions

If you have questions, please create a discussion in the repository.

License

By contributing, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under the MIT License.

Security

Please review our Security Policy for reporting security issues.