Microsoft MCP SDK lets .NET apps act as MCP clients to consume tool servers

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Developers building .NET applications can now use the ModelContextProtocol SDK to connect their apps directly to MCP servers as clients, rather than relying on third-party tools like Claude Desktop. The process involves three core steps: connecting to a server via stdio or HTTP transport, discovering available tools at runtime, and invoking them by name with arguments. Unlike traditional API clients, there are no pre-generated proxy classes — tools and their schemas are received dynamically, requiring code that adapts at runtime. The stdio transport works by launching the MCP server as a child process, with the SDK handling the protocol handshake automatically. A key practical tip highlighted is to always print the discovered tool list before making calls, since tool names are SDK-derived and may differ from the original C# method names in the server code.

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