Docker MCP Tutorial

Download all tutorial materials including example servers, Dockerfiles, and configuration templates to your local machine.

git clone https://github.com/theNetworkChuck/docker-mcp-tutorial.git
cd docker-mcp-tutorial

Open Docker Desktop, navigate to Settings > Beta Features, and enable the MCP Toolkit. This adds the `docker mcp` subcommand and the MCP gateway functionality.

The dice-roller example is the starting point—it demonstrates D&D dice notation, advantage/disadvantage rolls, and stat generation in a minimal Docker image.

cd examples/dice-roller
docker build -t dice-mcp-server .

Start the Docker MCP gateway to expose your containerized servers over SSE transport, enabling remote access from any MCP client.

docker mcp gateway run --transport sse

Use Docker's built-in secret management to store API keys rather than putting them in environment variables or config files.

docker mcp secret list
# Add a secret:
docker mcp secret set OPENWEATHER_API_KEY your_key_here

Point Claude Desktop at your running Docker MCP gateway or directly at the container's stdio transport.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dice-roller": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "--rm", "-i", "dice-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

If a server isn't responding correctly, inspect its logs using standard Docker logging commands to see startup errors or runtime exceptions.

docker logs <container-name>