PHP MCP Server SDK

Overview

The PHP MCP Server SDK empowers developers to build Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers directly in PHP, enabling seamless interaction between AI assistants such as Claude and custom data sources or tools. By exposing resources, prompts, and tools through a standardized MCP interface, this SDK eliminates the need to craft low‑level protocol handlers from scratch. Instead, developers can focus on defining business logic while the SDK manages message parsing, lifecycle events, and transport orchestration.

Solving a Common Pain Point

When integrating AI assistants into existing PHP applications, developers traditionally face two hurdles: (1) translating MCP messages over various transports like standard input/output or HTTP Server‑Sent Events, and (2) maintaining stateful conversations that adhere to the MCP specification. The PHP MCP Server SDK abstracts both concerns, offering a single entry point for registering resources and tools while automatically handling protocol compliance. This reduces boilerplate code, lowers the risk of implementation errors, and accelerates time‑to‑market for AI‑enabled services.

Core Capabilities

• Transport Agnosticism: Supports both stdio and Streamable HTTP(SSE) transports, allowing the same server code to run in CLI scripts or web environments without modification.
• Lifecycle Management: The SDK listens for and responds to MCP lifecycle events (e.g., , , ), ensuring that resources are cleaned up and state is preserved across interactions.
• Resource & Tool Registration: Developers can expose arbitrary PHP objects as MCP resources or tools, automatically generating the necessary schema and handling input validation.
• Prompt Integration: Built‑in support for injecting prompts into the conversation flow, enabling context‑aware responses and custom instruction sets.

Use Cases

• Enterprise Knowledge Bases: Expose internal document repositories or knowledge graphs as MCP resources, allowing an AI assistant to retrieve and summarize information on demand.
• Custom Data Access: Wrap proprietary APIs or database queries as MCP tools, giving the assistant controlled access to sensitive data without exposing endpoints directly.
• Workflow Automation: Combine multiple tools (e.g., email sending, calendar scheduling) into a single MCP server, enabling the assistant to orchestrate complex tasks within a unified session.

Integration with AI Workflows

Once deployed, the PHP MCP Server SDK can be paired with any AI platform that supports MCP. The server publishes its capabilities via a JSON schema, which the client can discover and consume dynamically. Developers can then build rich conversational experiences where the AI assistant transparently calls PHP‑implemented tools, retrieves resources, or executes prompts—all while maintaining a consistent protocol interface.

Standout Advantages

• Native PHP Ecosystem: Leverages Composer for dependency management and integrates smoothly with popular PHP frameworks (Laravel, Symfony) or plain scripts.
• Ease of Testing: Includes unit and inspector tests that validate protocol compliance, ensuring reliability before production deployment.
• Open‑Source & MIT‑Compatible: Released under Apache‑2.0, allowing unrestricted use and modification in commercial or open projects.

By abstracting the intricacies of MCP, this SDK lets PHP developers focus on business logic while delivering powerful, protocol‑compliant AI integrations that scale from small scripts to enterprise services.