# Understanding MCP

A hands-on lab repository that teaches the Model Context Protocol through guided exercises in a GitHub Codespace, kept current with the MCP specification and built on FastMCP 4.

Understanding MCP is a hands-on guide to the Model Context Protocol, delivered as a series of labs run from a preconfigured GitHub Codespaces environment (a local setup is also documented). It has been updated for the 2026-07-28 MCP specification revision, a breaking protocol change that removes the `initialize` handshake and `Mcp-Session-Id` and deprecates Roots, Sampling, and Logging, with an appendix noting which parts of that revision the labs do not yet cover.

The labs run on FastMCP 4, pinned in `requirements.txt`. Getting started involves raising the Codespace idle timeout, launching a new codespace from the repository, running a warmup script to speed up LLM interactions, and then working through a `labs.md` file either inside the codespace or in a separate browser tab.

Website: https://github.com/skillrepos/mcp