Most MCP tutorials start with "write a server". If all you want is for Claude to answer questions from a catalogue, an FAQ or a price list, you don't need to write anything.

The 2-minute version

json-mcp-lite turns a JSON array into three tools Claude can call:

  • products_list - page through records
  • products_search - keyword search where every word must match
  • products_get - one record by id 
git clone https://github.com/scoretracker4321/json-mcp-lite cd json-mcp-lite && npm install claude mcp add products -- node $(pwd)/src/server.js --file $(pwd)/examples/products.json --name products --id sku --search title,description

Now ask Claude Code: "Which teas are under 400 and in stock?" It calls products_search, reads the results and answers from your data, not from memory.

For Claude Desktop or Cursor, add the same command to the mcpServers block in the config file (the README has the JSON).

Why read-only and keyword search?

Two choices that keep it boring and safe:

  1. Every tool is marked readOnlyHint, so clients know nothing can change.
  2. Search is plain keyword matching, not embeddings. For catalogues and FAQs under a few thousand rows it is instant, needs no API key, and you can predict exactly what it returns. Claude is good at rephrasing a query when the first one misses.

When a JSON file is not enough

The moment your data lives behind a REST API, or you want the server online for a team instead of on one laptop, you need more: OpenAPI-to-tools, HTTP hosting, API keys, rate limits. I packaged that as MCP Server Kit (one config file turns an OpenAPI spec into typed tools). json-mcp-lite is the free part of it, and it stays MIT.

Repo: https://github.com/scoretracker4321/json-mcp-lite