Automating MCP Server Generation from OpenAPI Specs

Our team has always prioritized streamlining developer experiences and empowering our sales team with robust demo tools. Recently, we set out to find a solution to automatically generate a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server directly from our OpenAPI specification. After exploring multiple solutions, we discovered the powerful open-source tool: openapi-mcp-generator.

Why MCP?

The Model Context Protocol bridges the gap between large language models (LLMs) and external APIs — allowing Orum and our customers to interact dynamically with our APIs through AI-driven interfaces. An MCP server generated directly from our OpenAPI spec ensures consistent, always up-to-date API tooling without manual maintenance.

Discovering openapi-mcp-generator

After evaluating multiple options — including some great commercial tools — we ultimately chose the openapi-mcp-generator because of its simplicity, built-in OAuth support, robust TypeScript implementation, and active open-source community.

Integrating Into Our Build Pipeline

To ensure automation and seamless updates, we integrated openapi-mcp-generator directly into our API documentation CI/CD pipeline. Here's how we did it:

1. Installation and Setup

npm install -g openapi-mcp-generator

2. Generating MCP Server

Each time our OpenAPI spec (api.yaml) changes, our pipeline runs:

openapi-mcp-generator generate -i api.yaml -o ./mcp-server

3. Continuous Integration

Integrated into GitHub Actions, our MCP server automatically publishes a new version to npm whenever the API spec changes, keeping our API tooling in sync with development and enabling easy distribution to customers and internal users.

Empowering Teams Across the Company

The benefits of this automation are clear:

• Development Teams: Instantly test API workflows and run integration demos without waiting for manual updates or infrastructure.
• Sales Teams: Seamlessly showcase our APIs and real-time monitoring features in client demos, significantly boosting client understanding and engagement.

Here’s one of our engineers showing the full set-up and painting a picture of how customers might use it to action their Orum Sandbox Environment.

Note: Our MCP Server can currently only be used in our Sandbox Environment. Ensure you're using Sandbox credentials when getting started.

Check out the full Developer guide.

Looking Ahead

The adoption of openapi-mcp-generator has streamlined our API lifecycle, enhancing both internal efficiency and external visibility. We look forward to expanding its usage across other services and continuously contributing back to the open-source community.

If you're facing similar challenges, give openapi-mcp-generator a try — your developers and sales teams will thank you!