vercel

MCP UI with Vercel AI SDK

Start an MCP UI application that uses the Vercel AI SDK to provide a chat interface for local models, provided by the Docker Model Runner, with access to MCPs from the Docker MCP Catalog.

The application will start up with two models loaded (qwen3 and llama3.2), which both support tool calling. See the ./compose.yaml file for examples of how to add more models.

The application also starts with a connection to the Docker MCP Gateway, which has been configured to provide access to two MCPs (Brave and Wikipedia). See the ./compose.yaml file for examples of how to provide access to more MCPs.

Getting Started

Requirements

• Docker Desktop 4.43.0+ or Docker Engine installed.
• A laptop or workstation with a GPU (e.g., a MacBook) for running open models locally. If you don't have a GPU, you can alternatively use Docker Offload.
• If you're using Docker Engine on Linux or Docker Desktop on Windows, ensure that the Docker Model Runner requirements are met (specifically that GPU support is enabled) and the necessary drivers are installed.
• If you're using Docker Engine on Linux, ensure you have Docker Compose 2.38.1 or later installed.

Configure MCP secrets

This demo uses the Brave MCP, which requires an API key. You can create a free api key at the Brave Search api console.

docker mcp secret set 'brave.api_key=<insert your Brave Search API key here>'

Clone the project repository

git clone git@github.com:slimslenderslacks/scira-mcp-chat.git
cd scira-mcp-chat
# create a blank .mcp.env for now (will remove this step once cloud has secret support)
touch .mcp.env

Run the project locally

docker compose up --build

Access the MCP UI at http://localhost:3000.

What can it do?

Choose one of the two local models loaded by compose.yaml, and request that it do something with either Brave Search, or the Wikipedia tools. For example:

do a wikipedia search for articles about Docker and MCP

Run the project in Docker Cloud

# only required temporarily to support Cloud secrets
docker mcp secret export brave > .mcp.env

# compose.cloud.yaml still has one small diff from the local one.
docker compose up --build

Project Structure

File/Folder	Purpose
compose.yaml	Defines available models and MCPs
Dockerfile	Builds MCP UI application
Dockerfile.initialize-chat-store-schema	Builds a container that initializes a postgres Schema for the app

Cleanup

docker compose down

Credits

• Vercel AI SDK
• Docker MCP Toolkit
• Docker MCP Catalog