foss42 MCP Server

An MCP server exposing the foss42 utilities — country data, text and case conversion, and human-friendly number and date formatting.

Built with FastMCP. 5 workflow-shaped tools, no API key, no network calls — everything runs locally against bundled data.

See DESIGN.md for the reasoning and measured before/after.

• Quick start
• Connecting a client
• Tools
• Errors
• Development

Quick start

Requires Python 3.10+.

python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt

Run over stdio (the default, for local clients such as Claude Code or Claude Desktop):

.venv/bin/python server.py

Or over streamable HTTP, for a remotely reachable server:

.venv/bin/python server.py --transport http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

The MCP endpoint is then http://<host>:<port>/mcp.

| Flag | Default | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | --transport | stdio | stdio or http | | --host | 127.0.0.1 | Bind address (http only) | | --port | 8000 | Bind port (http only) |

To try the tools by hand, see TESTING.md.

Connecting a client

Claude Code

claude mcp add foss42 -- /path/to/mcp/.venv/bin/python /path/to/mcp/server.py

Claude Desktop — add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "foss42": {
      "command": "/path/to/mcp/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["/path/to/mcp/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Use absolute paths, and point at the venv's interpreter rather than a bare python.

All five tools are annotated readOnlyHint, idempotentHint, destructiveHint: false and openWorldHint: false, so clients can skip confirmation prompts.

Tools

get_country_info

Look up one or more countries and return only the fields you ask for.

get_country_info(country: str | list[str], include: list[CountryField] = None)

country takes a name, alias, or ISO alpha-2/alpha-3 code. You never need to know the code. Pass a list to look up several at once.

Resolution is forgiving: diacritics, punctuation and the definite article are normalised (Türkiye, Turkiye, U.S.A., The Netherlands), historical and colloquial names resolve (Burma → Myanmar, Swaziland → Eswatini, Holland → Netherlands, Great Britain → GB), and an ambiguous input is reported rather than guessed:

"Korea" → 'Korea' matches more than one country: North Korea (KP), South Korea (KR).
          Pass the one you mean, or use search_countries to compare them.

include selects fields; the default is names, codes, flag, stats.

| Field | Contents | | --- | --- | | names | Common name, official name, known aliases | | codes | ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 and alpha-3 | | flag | Flag emoji | | phone | International dialing code, e.g. +44 | | stats | Area, population, female population percent (World Bank) | | region | Continent and UN subregion | | subdivisions | States/provinces with code, name, category |

Subdivision data exists for 11 countries: AE, AU, CA, CH, CN, ES, IN, JP, KR, SG, US. The tool says so rather than making you find out by failing.

// get_country_info("UK", include=["flag", "stats", "phone"])
{
  "country": "United Kingdom", "alpha2": "GB", "flag": "🇬🇧",
  "intl_phone_code": "+44",
  "stats": { "area": 243610.0, "population": 67326569, "population_female_percent": 50.58 }
}

search_countries

Find countries by partial name or region when you don't know the exact name.

search_countries(query: str = None, region: str = None, limit: int = 25)

Regions are the 5 continents (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania) plus UN subregions such as South America, Western Europe, Southern Asia, Caribbean — 30 in total. Returns {matches, total, shown} and a note when truncated.

transform_text

Convert text between naming conventions and other styles.

transform_text(text: str | list[str], style: TextStyle, separator: str = "-")

Pass a list to convert many strings in one call. Identifier styles normalise _, -, ., spaces and camelCase boundaries first, so user_id, user-id, user id and userId all give the same result, and XMLHttpRequest → xml_http_request.

Using Grass is green as input:

| Style | Result | Style | Result | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | lower | grass is green | constant | GRASS_IS_GREEN | | upper | GRASS IS GREEN | camel_snake | grass_Is_Green | | capital | Grass Is Green | pascal_snake | Grass_Is_Green | | title | Grass Is Green | dot | grass.is.green | | sentence | Grass is green | kebab | grass-is-green | | swap | gRASS IS GREEN | cobol | GRASS-IS-GREEN | | flat | grassisgreen | train | Grass-Is-Green | | upper_flat | GRASSISGREEN | slug | grass-is-green | | pascal | GrassIsGreen | camel | grassIsGreen | | snake | grass_is_green | | |

Reverse styles turn an identifier into words: camel_to_words, snake_to_words, kebab_to_words. Also phone_to_numeric (1-800-FLOWERS → 1-800-3569377) and the novelty styles leet, upside_down, mirror.

humanize_number

humanize_number(value: int | list[int], style: "bytes" | "social" | "rank", ...)

| Style | Example | | --- | --- | | bytes | 24117248 → 23 MB (spell_out=true → 23 megabytes) | | social | 24117248 → 24.1M (system = NA/UK/SS) | | rank | 3 → 3rd, 11 → 11th, 61 → 61st |

digits and add_space default per style, so the common case needs only value and style. Pass a list to format a whole column in one call.

humanize_time

humanize_time(dt: str, dt_ref: str = None, fmt: str = None, units: "FULL" | "SHORT" = "FULL", ...)

2020-12-27T18:31:29 → 5 years ago (with add_adverb=true).

Errors

Tools raise ToolError, so failures reach the client as readable, actionable messages:

// get_country_info(country="Germny")
{
  "content": [{ "type": "text", "text":
    "No country matches 'Germny'. Closest matches: Germany (DE), Guernsey (GG). Pass one of those, or use search_countries to browse." }],
  "isError": true
}

Invalid input is caught in two places: pydantic rejects anything violating the input schema (a negative value, an unknown style) before the tool body runs, and src/errors.py translates foss42's exceptions into messages that name the fix.

Development

.venv/bin/pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
.venv/bin/python -m pytest

Tests drive the server in-process via fastmcp.Client(mcp) — no subprocess, no network. See TESTING.md for manual testing with the MCP Inspector, DESIGN.md for why the tool surface looks like this, and CONTRIBUTING.md for how to add a tool.

Layout

server.py            entrypoint and transport selection
src/mcp_app.py       the FastMCP instance
src/countries.py     country name/alias/code resolution and data assembly
src/enums.py         TextStyle, CountryField, HumanizeStyle, SystemEnum, DateUnitsEnum
src/errors.py        foss42 exceptions -> ToolError
src/tools/           country, humanize, text
tests/               pytest suite using the in-memory client

Tool logic lives in foss42/foss42-core; this repo is the MCP layer over it. Data and algorithm changes belong upstream.

License

Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE.