build-mcp-app

build-mcp-app is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from HK-hub/AgentSkills. It costs 111 tokens per session (4,017 once invoked), scanned A, a copy of build-mcp-app, MIT.

A guide for adding interactive interface elements to an MCP server, so tools can show forms, pickers, dashboards, previews, progress displays, or confirmation dialogs inside a chat.

In plain words
What is it for?
It is for building MCP tools with chat-based forms, file or record pickers, action confirmations, charts, maps, previews, and live job status.
Why use it?
It helps when plain text is not enough for structured input, visual output, choices, approvals, or long-running work. It explains when an interactive element is useful and when text is simpler.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one.

Good fit It is for building MCP tools with chat-based forms, file or record pickers, action confirmations, charts, maps, previews, and live job status.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/hk-hub/agentskills/build-mcp-app
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add HK-hub/AgentSkills --skill build-mcp-app
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/HK-hub/AgentSkills

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for build-mcp-app

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/hk-hub/agentskills/build-mcp-app/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/hk-hub/agentskills/build-mcp-app)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/hk-hub/agentskills/build-mcp-app"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/hk-hub/agentskills/build-mcp-app/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for build-mcp-app

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/hk-hub/agentskills/build-mcp-app"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/hk-hub/agentskills/build-mcp-app.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 111 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 4,017 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin 100% copy Near-identical to another mod in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00111 $0.04017
Opus 5 $0.00056 $0.02008
Sonnet 5 $0.00022 $0.00803
Haiku 4.5 $0.00011 $0.00402

Measured 10d ago against content hash e30e4a109048, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-10, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

build-mcp-app scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 10d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

Origin

This is a copy

100% identical to build-mcp-app — 8 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

build-mcp-app/SKILL.md · 353 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 353 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Build an MCP App (Interactive UI Widgets)

An MCP app is a standard MCP server that also serves UI resources — interactive components rendered inline in the chat surface. Build once, runs in Claude and ChatGPT and any other host that implements the apps surface.

The UI layer is additive. Under the hood it's still tools, resources, and the same wire protocol. If you haven't built a plain MCP server before, the build-mcp-server skill covers the base layer. This skill adds widgets on top.


When a widget beats plain text

Don't add UI for its own sake — most tools are fine returning text or JSON. Add a widget when one of these is true:

Signal Widget type
Tool needs structured input Claude can't reliably infer Form
User must pick from a list Claude can't rank (files, contacts, records) Picker / table
Destructive or billable action needs explicit confirmation Confirm dialog
Output is spatial or visual (charts, maps, diffs, previews) Display widget
Long-running job the user wants to watch Progress / live status

If none apply, skip the widget. Text is faster to build and faster for the user.


Widgets vs Elicitation — route correctly

Before building a widget, check if elicitation covers it. Elicitation is spec-native, zero UI code, works in any compliant host.

Need Elicitation Widget
Confirm yes/no overkill
Pick from short enum overkill
Fill a flat form (name, email, date) overkill
Pick from a large/searchable list ❌ (no scroll/search)
Visual preview before choosing
Chart / map / diff view
Live-updating progress

If elicitation covers it, use it. See ../build-mcp-server/references/elicitation.md.


Architecture: two deployment shapes

Remote MCP app (most common)

Hosted streamable-HTTP server. Widget templates are served as resources; tool results reference them. The host fetches the resource, renders it in an iframe sandbox, and brokers messages between the widget and Claude.

Read the full file on GitHub · 353 lines

Files

What ships with it

3 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 10d ago First seen · 353 lines · 111 tokens per session scan A e30e4a109048

Subscribe to this mod's changes

build-mcp-app is a skill published in the GitHub repository HK-hub/AgentSkills (6 stars, last pushed 23d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 111 tokens to every session and 4,017 once invoked, about $0.0006 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 100% identical to build-mcp-app, differing in 8 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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