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The Node.js runtime adapter is experimental. APIs may change between releases.
The fastest way to get a Node.js MCP server is the scaffold CLI, which generates a complete, working project:
bun create @phake/mcp my-mcp-app --template node-hono --install

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Manual setup

1

Install dependencies

Install @phake/mcp along with its peer dependencies for the Node.js runtime:
npm install @phake/mcp hono @hono/node-server
2

Define your tools

Use defineTool from @phake/mcp to create type-safe tools with Zod schemas:
src/tools/greet.ts
import { z } from "zod";
import { defineTool } from "@phake/mcp";

export const greetTool = defineTool({
  name: "greet",
  title: "Greet User",
  description: "Returns a greeting for the given name",
  inputSchema: z.object({
    name: z.string().describe("Name to greet"),
  }),
  outputSchema: z.object({
    message: z.string().describe("The greeting message"),
  }),
  handler: async (args) => {
    return { message: `Hello, ${args.name}!` };
  },
});
Tool definitions are runtime-agnostic — the same defineTool call works on both Cloudflare Workers and Node.js.
3

Configure environment variables

Create a .env file in your project root for local development:
.env
AUTH_STRATEGY=none
LOG_LEVEL=debug
PORT=3000
For production, add your auth strategy variables and RS_TOKENS_ENC_KEY. See the environment variables reference for the full list.

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Node.js runtime exports

The @phake/mcp/runtime/node package exports the following for use in Node.js projects:
ExportDescription
buildServer(options)Creates an McpServer instance from the MCP SDK
FileTokenStoreFile-backed token store (experimental)
SqliteSessionStoreSQLite-backed session store via Drizzle ORM (experimental)
import { buildServer, FileTokenStore, SqliteSessionStore } from "@phake/mcp/runtime/node";
See Storage backends for details on the experimental stores.
The node-hono scaffold template wires up the Hono HTTP layer, auth middleware, MCP transport, and tool registration automatically. It is the recommended starting point for Node.js deployments.