A template for running and monetizing a Model Context Protocol server using stdio transport on Apify platform. This allows you to run any stdio MCP server as a standby Actor and connect via either the streamable HTTP transport or the legacy SSE transport with an MCP client.

How to use

Change the MCP_COMMAND to spawn your stdio MCP server in src/main.ts, and don't forget to install the required MCP server in the package.json (using npm install ...). By default, this template runs an Everything MCP Server using the following command:

const MCP_COMMAND = [
    'npx',
    '@modelcontextprotocol/server-everything',
];

Alternatively, you can use the mcp-remote tool to turn a remote MCP server into an Actor. For example, to connect to a remote server with authentication:

const MCP_COMMAND = [
    'npx',
    'mcp-remote',
    'https://mcp.apify.com',
    '--header',
    'Authorization: Bearer TOKEN',
];

Feel free to configure billing logic in .actor/pay_per_event.json and src/billing.ts.

Push your Actor to the Apify platform, configure standby mode, and then connect to the Actor standby URL with your MCP client. You can use either:

https://me--my-mcp-server.apify.actor/mcp (streamable HTTP transport, recommended)
https://me--my-mcp-server.apify.actor/sse (legacy SSE transport)

Important: When connecting to your deployed MCP server, you must pass your Apify API token in the Authorization header as a Bearer token. For example:

Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_API_TOKEN>

This is required for authentication and to access your Actor endpoint.

Pay per event

This template uses the Pay Per Event (PPE) monetization model, which provides flexible pricing based on defined events.

To charge users, define events in JSON format and save them on the Apify platform. Here is an example schema with the tool-request event:

[
    {
        "tool-request": {
            "eventTitle": "Price for completing a tool request",
            "eventDescription": "Flat fee for completing a tool request.",
            "eventPriceUsd": 0.05
        }
    }
]

In the Actor, trigger the event with:

await Actor.charge({ eventName: 'tool-request' });

This approach allows you to programmatically charge users directly from your Actor, covering the costs of execution and related services.

To set up the PPE model for this Actor:

Configure Pay Per Event: establish the Pay Per Event pricing schema in the Actor's Monetization settings. First, set the Pricing model to Pay per event and add the schema. An example schema can be found in .actor/pay_per_event.json.

Resources

Getting started

For complete information see this article. In short, you will:

Build the Actor
Run the Actor

Pull the Actor for local development

If you would like to develop locally, you can pull the existing Actor from Apify console using Apify CLI:

Install apify-cli

Using Homebrew

$brew install apify-cli

Using NPM

$npm -g install apify-cli

Pull the Actor by its unique <ActorId>, which is one of the following:
- unique name of the Actor to pull (e.g. "apify/hello-world")
- or ID of the Actor to pull (e.g. "E2jjCZBezvAZnX8Rb")
You can find both by clicking on the Actor title at the top of the page, which will open a modal containing both Actor unique name and Actor ID.

This command will copy the Actor into the current directory on your local machine.
```
$apify pull <ActorId>
```