Skybridge

Skybridge: The React Framework for MCP Apps

Skybridge is an open-source, full-stack TypeScript framework for building MCP (Model Context Protocol) apps — interactive applications that render directly inside Claude, ChatGPT, VS Code, and other MCP-compatible clients. You define your tools on the server and write React components for the UI, and Skybridge handles the protocol plumbing and the platform differences between clients, so one codebase runs everywhere MCP does.

The framework's pitch is developer experience: tRPC-style type inference flows end-to-end from server tool definitions into your React views, and the tooling around the core — hot reload inside the actual AI clients, a local emulator, and a built-in tunnel — makes the edit-test loop feel like ordinary web development rather than protocol work.

Key Features

• Write once, run everywhere — one codebase targets Claude, ChatGPT, VS Code, and other MCP clients, with platform differences abstracted away
• End-to-end type safety — tRPC-style inference from server-side tool definitions through to React components
• Hot Module Reload in-client — see changes instantly inside Claude and ChatGPT without restarting anything
• Local emulator — test how your app renders across different client interfaces before deploying
• Public dev tunnel — expose your dev server on a stable HTTPS URL for real-client testing
• Server audit — validate your app against platform guidelines before shipping

Ideal Use Case

Skybridge is for full-stack TypeScript developers building apps that live inside AI assistants — an internal dashboard your team queries from Claude, a customer-facing tool that renders in ChatGPT, or a product surface for the emerging MCP app ecosystem. If you know React, you already know most of the model; the framework handles the protocol.

How Skybridge differentiates

Skybridge is MIT-licensed and maintained by Alpic, with real adoption for a young ecosystem: the skybridge npm package sees 100K monthly downloads and the repository has passed 1K GitHub stars, with teams at companies like Datadog and Bitmovin building on it. In a space where most MCP tooling stops at server scaffolding, Skybridge covers the full stack including the rendered UI.

FAQ

Is Skybridge free? Yes — it is open source under the MIT license. You install it from npm and pay nothing for the framework itself.

Which AI clients can Skybridge apps run in? Claude, ChatGPT, VS Code, and other MCP-compatible clients, from a single codebase.

Do I need to learn the MCP protocol in depth? No — you define typed server tools and write React views; Skybridge handles the protocol and per-platform differences.

How do I test an app during development? Use the local emulator to preview across client interfaces, Hot Module Reload to iterate live inside Claude or ChatGPT, and the built-in tunnel to expose your dev server over HTTPS.

tl;dr

Skybridge brings the Next.js-style framework experience to MCP apps: typed server tools, React views, hot reload inside Claude and ChatGPT, and MIT-licensed code with 100K monthly npm downloads. If you are building for the MCP app ecosystem in TypeScript, this is the current default choice.

Related

Looking for more options? Browse the Developer Tools directory or read our best AI coding tools listicle. Skybridge is also tracked on Crunchbase.