What's mcp-ui? • Core Concepts • Installation • Getting Started • Walkthrough • Examples • Supported Hosts • Security • Roadmap • Contributing • License
mcp-ui brings interactive web components to the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Deliver rich, dynamic UI resources directly from your MCP server to be rendered by the client. Take AI interaction to the next level!
This project is an experimental community playground for MCP UI ideas. Expect rapid iteration and enhancements!
mcp-ui?mcp-ui is a collection of SDKs comprising:
@mcp-ui/server (TypeScript): Utilities to generate UI resources (UIResource) on your MCP server.@mcp-ui/client (TypeScript): UI components (e.g., <UIResourceRenderer />) to render the UI resources and handle their events.mcp_ui_server (Ruby): Utilities to generate UI resources on your MCP server in a Ruby environment.mcp-ui-server (Python): Utilities to generate UI resources on your MCP server in a Python environment.Together, they let you define reusable UI snippets on the server side, seamlessly and securely render them in the client, and react to their actions in the MCP host environment.
In essence, by using mcp-ui SDKs, servers and hosts can agree on contracts that enable them to create and render interactive UI snippets (as a path to a standardized UI approach in MCP).
The primary payload returned from the server to the client is the UIResource:
interface UIResource {
type: 'resource';
resource: {
uri: string; // e.g., ui://component/id
mimeType: 'text/html' | 'text/uri-list' | 'application/vnd.mcp-ui.remote-dom'; // text/html for HTML content, text/uri-list for URL content, application/vnd.mcp-ui.remote-dom for remote-dom content (Javascript)
text?: string; // Inline HTML, external URL, or remote-dom script
blob?: string; // Base64-encoded HTML, URL, or remote-dom script
};
}
uri: Unique identifier for caching and routingui://… — UI resources (rendering method determined by mimeType)mimeType: text/html for HTML content (iframe srcDoc), text/uri-list for URL content (iframe src), application/vnd.mcp-ui.remote-dom for remote-dom content (Javascript)text/uri-list format supports multiple URLs, MCP-UI uses only the first valid http/s URL and warns if additional URLs are foundtext vs. blob: Choose text for simple strings; use blob for larger or encoded content.The UI Resource is rendered in the <UIResourceRenderer /> component. It automatically detects the resource type and renders the appropriate component.
It is available as a React component and as a Web Component.
React Component
It accepts the following props:
- resource: The resource object from an MCP Tool response. It must include uri, mimeType, and content (text, blob)
- onUIAction: Optional callback for handling UI actions from the resource:
typescript
{ type: 'tool', payload: { toolName: string, params: Record<string, unknown> }, messageId?: string } |
{ type: 'intent', payload: { intent: string, params: Record<string, unknown> }, messageId?: string } |
{ type: 'prompt', payload: { prompt: string }, messageId?: string } |
{ type: 'notify', payload: { message: string }, messageId?: string } |
{ type: 'link', payload: { url: string }, messageId?: string }
When actions include a messageId, the iframe automatically receives response messages for asynchronous handling.
- supportedContentTypes: Optional array to restrict which content types are allowed (['rawHtml', 'externalUrl', 'remoteDom'])
- htmlProps: Optional props for the internal <HTMLResourceRenderer>
- style: Optional custom styles for the iframe
- iframeProps: Optional props passed to the iframe element
- iframeRenderData: Optional Record<string, unknown> to pass data to the iframe upon rendering. This enables advanced use cases where the parent application needs to provide initial state or configuration to the sandboxed iframe content.
- autoResizeIframe: Optional boolean | { width?: boolean; height?: boolean } to automatically resize the iframe to the size of the content.
- remoteDomProps: Optional props for the internal <RemoteDOMResourceRenderer>
- library: Optional component library for Remote DOM resources (defaults to basicComponentLibrary)
- remoteElements: remote element definitions for Remote DOM resources.
Web Component
The Web Component is available as <ui-resource-renderer>. It accepts the same props as the React component, but they must be passed as strings.
Example:
<ui-resource-renderer
resource='{ "mimeType": "text/html", "text": "<h2>Hello from the Web Component!</h2>" }'
></ui-resource-renderer>
The onUIAction prop can be handled by attaching an event listener to the component:
const renderer = document.querySelector('ui-resource-renderer');
renderer.addEventListener('onUIAction', (event) => {
console.log('Action:', event.detail);
});
The Web Component is available in the @mcp-ui/client package at dist/ui-resource-renderer.wc.js.
text/html and text/uri-list)Rendered using the internal <HTMLResourceRenderer /> component, which displays content inside an <iframe>. This is suitable for self-contained HTML or embedding external apps.
mimeType:text/html: Renders inline HTML content.text/uri-list: Renders an external URL. MCP-UI uses the first valid http/s URL.application/vnd.mcp-ui.remote-dom)Rendered using the internal <RemoteDOMResourceRenderer /> component, which utilizes Shopify's remote-dom. The server responds with a script that describes the UI and events. On the host, the script is securely rendered in a sandboxed iframe, and the UI changes are communicated to the host in JSON, where they're rendered using the host's component library. This is more flexible than iframes and allows for UIs that match the host's look-and-feel.
mimeType: application/vnd.mcp-ui.remote-dom+javascript; framework={react | webcomponents}UI snippets must be able to interact with the agent. In mcp-ui, this is done by hooking into events sent from the UI snippet and reacting to them in the host (see onUIAction prop). For example, an HTML may trigger a tool call when a button is clicked by sending an event which will be caught handled by the client.
# using npm
npm install @mcp-ui/server @mcp-ui/client
# or pnpm
pnpm add @mcp-ui/server @mcp-ui/client
# or yarn
yarn add @mcp-ui/server @mcp-ui/client
gem install mcp_ui_server
# using pip
pip install mcp-ui-server
# or uv
uv add mcp-ui-server
You can use GitMCP to give your IDE access to mcp-ui's latest documentation!
```ts import { createUIResource } from '@mcp-ui/server'; import { createRemoteComponent, createRemoteDocument, createRemoteText, } from '@remote-dom/core';
// Inline HTML const htmlResource = createUIResource({ uri: 'ui://greeting/1', content: { type: 'rawHtml', htmlString: '
Hello, MCP UI!
' }, encoding: 'text', });
// External URL const externalUrlResource = createUIResource({ uri: 'ui://greeting/1', content: { type: 'externalUrl', iframeUrl: 'https://example.com' }, encoding: 'text', });
// remote-dom
const remoteDomResource = createUIResource({
uri: 'ui://remote-component/action-button',
content: {
type: 'remoteDom',
script: const button = document.createElement('ui-button');
button.setAttribute('label', 'Click me for a tool call!');
button.addEventListener('press', () => {
window.parent.postMessage({ type: 'tool', payload: { toolName: 'uiInteraction', params: { action: 'button-click', from: 'remote-dom' } } }, '*');
});
root.appendChild(button);,
framework: 'react', // or 'webcomponents'
},
encoding: 'text',
});
```
```tsx import React from 'react'; import { UIResourceRenderer } from '@mcp-ui/client';
function App({ mcpResource }) { if ( mcpResource.type === 'resource' && mcpResource.resource.uri?.startsWith('ui://') ) { return ( { console.log('Action:', result); }} /> ); } return
Unsupported resource
; } ```
Server-side: Build your UI resources
```python from mcp_ui_server import create_ui_resource
# Inline HTML html_resource = create_ui_resource({ "uri": "ui://greeting/1", "content": { "type": "rawHtml", "htmlString": "
Hello, from Python!
" }, "encoding": "text", })
# External URL external_url_resource = create_ui_resource({ "uri": "ui://greeting/2", "content": { "type": "externalUrl", "iframeUrl": "https://example.com" }, "encoding": "text", }) ```
Server-side: Build your UI resources
```ruby require 'mcp_ui_server'
# Inline HTML html_resource = McpUiServer.create_ui_resource( uri: 'ui://greeting/1', content: { type: :raw_html, htmlString: '
Hello, from Ruby!
' }, encoding: :text )
# External URL external_url_resource = McpUiServer.create_ui_resource( uri: 'ui://greeting/2', content: { type: :external_url, iframeUrl: 'https://example.com' }, encoding: :text )
# remote-dom remote_dom_resource = McpUiServer.create_ui_resource( uri: 'ui://remote-component/action-button', content: { type: :remote_dom, script: " const button = document.createElement('ui-button'); button.setAttribute('label', 'Click me from Ruby!'); button.addEventListener('press', () => { window.parent.postMessage({ type: 'tool', payload: { toolName: 'uiInteraction', params: { action: 'button-click', from: 'ruby-remote-dom' } } }, '*'); }); root.appendChild(button); ", framework: :react, }, encoding: :text ) ```
For a detailed, simple, step-by-step guide on how to integrate mcp-ui into your own server, check out the full server walkthroughs on the mcp-ui documentation site:
These guides will show you how to add a mcp-ui endpoint to an existing server, create tools that return UI resources, and test your setup with the ui-inspector!
Client Examples
* Goose - open source AI agent that supports mcp-ui.
* LibreChat - enhanced ChatGPT clone that supports mcp-ui.
* ui-inspector - inspect local mcp-ui-enabled servers.
* MCP-UI Chat - interactive chat built with the mcp-ui client. Check out the hosted version!
* MCP-UI RemoteDOM Playground (examples/remote-dom-demo) - local demo app to test RemoteDOM resources
* MCP-UI Web Component Demo (examples/wc-demo) - local demo app to test the Web Component integration in hosts
Server Examples
* TypeScript: A full-featured server that is deployed to a hosted environment for easy testing.
* **[typescript-server-demo](./exampl
$ claude mcp add mcp-ui \
-- python -m otcore.mcp_server <graph>