Build an AI Agent with MCP and TypeScript in 2026

The Model Context Protocol crossed 97 million monthly SDK downloads in 2026. Most tutorials cover the server side — registering tools and exposing them via MCP. This guide covers the other half: building an agent that connects to those servers, discovers available tools at runtime, and routes Claude's tool_use requests through the MCP client API. You will end up with a TypeScript program that: Spawns an MCP server process (stdio transport) Calls listTools() to discover available tools Sends a us