Agent As Mcp Server MAF

This repo demonstrates how to expose an agent as an MCP server using the Microsoft Agent Framework (MAF), and how to connect to it from:

• a test ping client (mcp-ping.py), and
• a ChatAgent orchestration client (client-local-mcp.py) that uses the local MCP server as a tool.

It uses the STDIO transport for MCP, which means the client launches the server as a subprocess and the two sides exchange JSON‑RPC messages over stdin/stdout.

Files

• agent-as-mcp-svr.py — MCP server that exposes the agent via agent.as_mcp_server() and stdio_server().
• mcp-ping.py — Minimal client that launches the server with stdio_client(), lists tools, and calls the agent tool.
• client-local-mcp.py — ChatAgent orchestration example using MCPStdioTool to connect to the local server.

---

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• Recommended: a virtual environment
• Packages:

  pip install --pre agent-framework mcp anyio azure-identity python-dotenv
  

Environment Configuration

If you use Azure OpenAI (recommended):

export AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT="https://<your-endpoint>.cognitiveservices.azure.com/"
export AZURE_OPENAI_RESPONSES_DEPLOYMENT_NAME="gpt-4o"     # responses / agent usage
export AZURE_OPENAI_CHAT_DEPLOYMENT_NAME="gpt-4o"          # optional for chat client
export AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION="2025-03-01-preview"       # or 'preview'
# One of:
export AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY="<your-key>"                   # simplest
# OR AAD-based:
# (unset REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE SSL_CERT_FILE; az login)
# export AZURE_USE_CLI=1

Corporate CA bundle users: ensure REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE (and optionally SSL_CERT_FILE) point to a valid PEM path. For az login, you may need to temporarily unset those vars.

How to Run

1) Quick local ping (STDIO client/server)

This starts the server as a subprocess and calls the agent tool:

python mcp-ping.py

Expected output (abridged):

TOOLS: ['RestaurantAgent']
== RestaurantAgent input schema ==
{ ... JSON schema ... }

== Health Check (JSON) ==
{ "status": "ok", "endpoint": "...", ... }

2) Orchestrated ChatAgent using the MCP server

This lets a ChatAgent use the local MCP server as a tool:

python client-local-mcp.py

It will run a sequence of prompts (health check, menu list, dietary filter, pricing, happy hour).

Troubleshooting

• Invalid JSON / EOF when running the server alone — you launched the server without a client. Use mcp-ping.py (they start the server and speak MCP).
• Token/credential errors — provide AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY or AZURE_USE_CLI=1 with az login. For AAD chains, DefaultAzureCredential must be able to find an identity.
• Tool arg mismatch — the agent-as-tool typically expects a single task string. Ensure clients send {"task":"your prompt"}.

How it Works (STDIO)

• Server: stdio_server() exposes async stdin/stdout streams; server.run() handles JSON‑RPC (initialize/list_tools/call_tool).
• Client: stdio_client() launches the server process and returns streams; ClientSession drives the JSON‑RPC calls.

---