ServicesMCP server development
Custom MCP server development, so AI agents can work in your systems under your rules
We build MCP servers to order, so the AI assistant your team already uses can look up an order in the ERP or update a ticket, with a person approving every change that matters. The first project covers one tool for one of your systems, tested with your AI client, and ends with the code, tests and runbooks handed to your team. It suits companies that want agents working in ERP, CRM, DMS or ticket systems without giving up control.
What happens when the assistant calls a tool
- 1
The assistant sends a request that matches the tool's defined input.
- 2
Access is checked against the permissions agreed for that tool.
- 3
Reads return data. Writes wait until a person approves them.
- 4
The call is logged without credentials, and failures return a clear error.
What changes for your business
Your assistant starts doing work in your systems, and people stay in charge of every change that matters. Instead of copying an order number from the chat into the ERP, checking a customer's history in the CRM by hand or filing a document in the DMS, staff ask the assistant, check what it prepared and approve it. Reading comes first. Writing is added one action at a time once reading is reliable.
- Less copying between systems: the assistant looks up and prepares, people approve
- Faster answers to customers, because order, ticket and contract data are one question away
- Your existing access rules apply, so an agent sees only what the person it works for may see
- Every call logged, so IT and auditors can see what happened
- One standard connection per system that several AI clients can use, instead of a separate integration for each
More detail
That order matches what people ask for. In Inform's 2025 survey of logistics and supply chain companies, 46% prefer AI that suggests while a person decides, and 61% want to be able to intervene. An MCP server enforces that: the agent sees only what the person asking may see, and changes wait for approval. Examples by department are on our customer service and document processing use case pages.
An example with support tickets
Suppose your support team wants its assistant to look up a customer's open tickets and draft a status update. An MCP server could offer two tools. One reads ticket details through your helpdesk API with the access rights of the person asking. The other prepares the update and posts nothing until that person has approved the text.
What the first commission covers
First we check whether you need an MCP server at all. Your assistant may already have a connector for the system, or an ordinary API integration may be simpler, and then we recommend that instead. When a server is the right choice, the first commission is one bounded tool, such as reading an order, built for the client your team actually uses.
More detail
Every tool gets a schema that states what it accepts, what it returns and what each error means, so the model can use it correctly and a reviewer can see what happened.
At the end of the first commission, that tool runs in an environment you choose, tested with your client, logging every call and holding changes for approval. Code, tests and runbooks stay with you after handover. Further tools are scoped and priced as separate steps.
Would you like to talk this through for your own case? The first call is free and takes 30 minutes.
Book a 30-minute callAccess, identity and approvals
We begin with read-only tools and the narrowest scopes the task allows. Where the underlying system supports it, a call runs as the user who asked, so your existing access rules apply. Any tool that changes data first asks a person for explicit approval.
More detail
Content a tool returns, such as a customer's comment on a ticket, can contain instructions aimed at the model. We test each tool with content like that. Permission checks and approvals are enforced in the server and the systems behind it, so they do not depend on the model ignoring those instructions.
- Write access added one tool at a time, after the read-only version works
- Tokens and secrets kept out of logs and tool output
Failures, retries and tests
Internal APIs time out, hit rate limits and sometimes fail halfway. Each tool gets timeouts and retry rules that respect the API behind it. Not every API makes repeated writes safe on its own, so we design each write operation to be idempotent: a retried call does not repeat the business action or post the same update twice.
More detail
Tests cover allowed and denied inputs, partial failures, and the protocol and client versions you run. Clients implement different parts of MCP, so we confirm what works with yours.
Where it runs and what you keep
Whether the server runs locally next to the client or as a remote service in your environment is decided after we have reviewed access and security with your team.
More detail
- Source code and configuration in your repositories
- Tests your CI can run on every change
- Runbooks for adding a tool and revoking access
- An agreed owner on your side for each tool
Questions
Does an MCP server pay off, or is a normal integration enough?
It pays off when an AI assistant or agent should use the same system in several tasks, or when several AI tools should reach it under one set of rules. For one fixed automation, an ordinary API integration is often simpler and cheaper, and we say so. We measure the benefit on the task itself: how many lookups or entries the agent prepares and how much checking time your staff need for them.
Who decides what the agent may do in our systems?
You do. Each tool does one business action, such as reading an order or drafting a ticket update, with the narrowest rights the task allows. Changes wait for a named person to approve them, every call is logged without credentials, and an owner on your side can switch a tool off at any time.
What drives the cost of an MCP server?
Mainly the number of tools, whether they only read or also write, how the systems behind them handle identity and approvals, and which AI clients must be tested. Starting with one read-only tool keeps the first step small. Each step has a fixed price, agreed in writing after the first call.
What happens in the first call?
Thirty minutes with one of our engineers, free of charge, about the systems you want to connect and the assistant your team uses. We need no access to any of them. Afterwards we send a written scope for the first tool with a fixed price, or tell you that a plain integration or an existing connector will do.
Does MCP make an assistant secure?
Not on its own. MCP defines how an assistant and a tool talk to each other. Safety depends on the permissions, approvals, logging and tests around each tool, and that is the part we design with you.
Will the server work with every AI client?
No. Clients support different parts of the protocol and change between releases. We test against the clients you name and tell you where support is limited.
Do you sell ready-made MCP servers?
No. We build servers for your own APIs and systems as a project, and the code goes to your team at handover.
What do we need to provide for an MCP project?
Mainly access to a test or sandbox instance of the system, its API documentation and a person on your side who knows the system and may approve permissions. We also need the AI client your team uses, so we can test against it. If there is no test environment, we agree in the first call how to work safely without one.
Related services
Data integration for AI
Answers from file shares, SharePoint, ERP and tickets in seconds, for assistants and agents, with permissions carried through and tested.
Knowledge assistants (RAG)
Staff find answers in internal documents in seconds, with sources cited, permissions kept and tests on your own questions.
AI agents and process automation
Agents that take on the routine steps of complex cases and pass decisions to people, with a cost per handled case.
AI chatbots
Customers and staff answered faster from your data, with approved actions and a handover to people when it matters.
Custom model training
A small open-weight model trained for one task and compared with your current model on cost and accuracy.
On-premise AI
AI on offers, contracts and customer files, with the data staying in your company: own servers or own cloud account, tested before go-live.
AI system testing
Before go-live, acceptance tests on your own cases tell you how often your chatbot, assistant or agent is right, in terms your QA team already uses.
From the blog
MCP tool design
Why an MCP server should usually offer a few tools shaped around business actions instead of mirroring every API endpoint, with a worked example and a tool contract.
MCP server permissions
How to connect an assistant to internal systems without giving every MCP tool broad access: scopes, checks inside each tool and separate downstream identities.
MCP server test plan
A test plan for an MCP server before users connect: contract tests, negative authorisation tests, failure tests and state-change tests, with checks that run in CI.
Talk to an engineer
Bring one system where staff copy data by hand. In a free 30-minute call we look at what an agent could prepare there for approval, and whether an MCP server or a plain API integration is the better fit. We need no access to your systems or data.
Booking runs on Google Calendar.

When you book a call, you speak to Mickey Graf
He founded Cloudsail and has put machine learning into production since 2017, including AI engineering at trivago and SAP. The call can be in English, German or Polish.
Prefer to write first? Leave your email and a few lines. Mickey reads every message himself and replies by email with times for a call.
Look for the draft in your email program
Send it from there, and Mickey replies in person with times for a 30-minute call. If no draft has opened, write to us at miki@cloudsail.com.