What a production MCP server needs
Moving an MCP server from stdio on your laptop to a remote URL adds four requirements most hosting platforms leave to you:
- A process that stays up. Streamable HTTP sessions, background work and in-memory caches break when a function is recycled between calls. A DenkOps slot is an always-on container with no cold start and no run-time limit.
- Sign-in for the people using it. Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini expect an OAuth 2.1 flow with discovery, PKCE and client registration. Set
"connector": trueindenkops.jsonand DenkOps runs that flow for you, with Google, GitHub or Microsoft sign-in and an allowed-email list. See OAuth for MCP servers. - Secrets the model never sees. API keys live in per-project environment variables. An agent can set and use them, and a scoped token can be denied read access.
- Somewhere to look when a tool fails. Live logs, status, health and request traces, readable by you in the dashboard and by your coding agent over MCP.
How hosting works on DenkOps
- Write the server with the official MCP SDK, or with
defineMcpfrom@denkopsai/sdk/mcp, in Bun or Python. - Tell your coding agent "deploy on DenkOps", or run
npx @denkopsai/mcp deployfrom CI. - You get an HTTPS URL. Add it as a custom connector in Claude, as an app in ChatGPT, or paste it into any MCP client. The config generator writes the snippet for each client.
Before you share the URL, run it through the free MCP server checker: it tests the handshake, the tool list and the OAuth discovery chain the way a real client does.
What it costs
One project is free, no credit card. Paid workspaces get 5 always-on slots for €39 per month and €5 per extra slot. No per-request or per-GB line items, so ten client connectors cost the same in a quiet month and a busy one. Compare that with request-priced platforms in DenkOps vs Cloudflare Workers and Google Cloud Run. Hosted on Smithery until its shutdown? See moving off Smithery.
When DenkOps is not the right host
If your server is a thin, stateless proxy that sees millions of short requests a day and nothing else, a scale-to-zero platform can be cheaper. DenkOps is built for servers that hold state, run longer jobs, call other APIs behind an egress allowlist, or serve a known set of users.