Getting Started

System Requirements

Hardware

	Minimum	Recommended
CPU	2 cores	4+ cores
RAM	2 GB	4 GB
Disk	4 GB	10 GB
Arch	x86_64 (amd64) or ARM64	-

Minimum is enough to run the application with 1-2 database connections under light load. Recommended provides comfortable headroom for multiple connections and concurrent queries. The image runs the L0 regex prompt-injection guard out of the box; the L1 ML layer (DeBERTa ONNX, ~180 MB) is included but opt-in via STUDIO_PROMPT_GUARD_ML_DOWNLOAD=true - see Security.

For high-load scenarios (10+ connections, heavy concurrent queries):

4-8 CPU cores, 8 GB RAM, 20 GB disk

Software

Requirement	Version	Purpose
Docker	24+	Container runtime
Docker Compose	v2+	Multi-container orchestration

Quick Start

Pull the image

docker pull smkrv/smkrv-mcp-studio:latest

Generate secrets

export STUDIO_ENCRYPTION_KEY=$(python3 -c "from cryptography.fernet import Fernet; print(Fernet.generate_key().decode())")
export STUDIO_JWT_SECRET=$(python3 -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(32))")
export STUDIO_AGENT_SERVICE_TOKEN=$(python3 -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(32))")
export REDIS_PASSWORD=$(openssl rand -base64 32)

See Configuration Reference for all available variables.

Run the container

docker run -d \
  --name mcp-studio \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -p 80:80 \
  -p 443:443 \
  -e STUDIO_ENCRYPTION_KEY=$STUDIO_ENCRYPTION_KEY \
  -e STUDIO_JWT_SECRET=$STUDIO_JWT_SECRET \
  -e STUDIO_AGENT_SERVICE_TOKEN=$STUDIO_AGENT_SERVICE_TOKEN \
  -e REDIS_PASSWORD=$REDIS_PASSWORD \
  -v mcp-studio-data:/app/data \
  -v mcp-studio-generated:/shared/generated \
  -v mcp-studio-certs:/etc/letsencrypt \
  -v mcp-studio-redis:/data/redis \
  smkrv/smkrv-mcp-studio:latest

Ports 80/443 are optional - only needed for SSL/HTTPS via Let’s Encrypt. Without SSL, port 3000 is sufficient.

Verify it started

curl http://localhost:3000/api/health
# Expected: {"status":"ok","version":"..."}

The UI is available at http://localhost:3000.

First-Run Setup

On first visit, the app detects that no admin account exists and shows the Setup screen:

Create Admin Account - enter a username and password (minimum 8 characters). This is the only admin account for the installation.
Login - after setup, you are automatically logged in and redirected to the Dashboard.
(Optional) Enable 2FA - go to Settings, open the 2FA section, and scan the QR code with an authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Authy, 1Password, etc.). Save your recovery codes.

First Steps

Create a Connection

Go to the Connections page, click New Connection, select your database type, enter credentials, and test the connection.

Build a Tool

Go to the Tools page, click New Tool, select your connection, write a SQL query with parameters (e.g., SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = :user_id), and save.

Build Resources and Prompts

Optionally create Resources (data endpoints) and Prompts (template messages) in the same way.

Deploy

Go to the Server page and click Deploy. See Deployment for details and MCP client configuration.

Connect a Client

Go to Server > Connect tab to get the MCP endpoint URL and configuration snippets for Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Claude Code.

Verify Installation

Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser - you should see the Setup screen (first run) or the Login page. You can also verify via the terminal:

curl http://localhost:3000/api/health
# Expected: {"status":"ok","version":"..."}

After deploying your first MCP server, check its status on the Server page - the status badge shows Running when the server is active.

Next Steps

Visual Flow Editor - drag-and-drop canvas for managing your entire configuration
Configuration Reference - all environment variables and server settings
Security Guide - encryption, authentication, and hardening
API Reference - complete REST API documentation
Agent MCP - AI agent access via MCP protocol
Troubleshooting - common issues and solutions

Overview

Security & Operations

Legal

System Requirements

Hardware

Software

Quick Start

First-Run Setup

First Steps

Verify Installation

Next Steps

​System Requirements

​Hardware

​Software

​Quick Start

​First-Run Setup

​First Steps

​Verify Installation

​Next Steps

System Requirements

Hardware

Software

Quick Start

First-Run Setup

First Steps

Verify Installation

Next Steps