FastMCP FastMCP
Sign In
Back to Blog

MCP Apps: The Interactive UI Revolution for AI Agents Is Here

• 559 views

Folks, while you were sleeping, history was made. Anthropic, OpenAI, and the MCP-UI creators joined forces to unveil MCP Apps - the official extension for building interactive user interfaces in Model Context Protocol. And you know what? This changes absolutely everything.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

Picture this scenario. Andrew's building an MCP server for data visualization. Right now, his server can only send JSON with chart data, and every client has to figure out how to render it themselves. ChatGPT draws it one way, Claude another way, and some custom client doesn't even know what to do with it.

Or take Elena, who's creating a server for complex system configuration. She needs a form with 20 fields, validation, dependent selects. How do you do that through text chat? You don't. Well, you can, but it's hell - sequential prompts like "Enter parameter 1", "Now parameter 2", "Oops, parameter 2 doesn't match parameter 1, let's start over".

MCP Apps solves this problem once and for all.

How It Works (And Why It's Brilliant)

The architectural solution is simply brilliant. UI components register as regular MCP resources with the ui:// prefix. Look how elegant this is:

// Server registers UI resource
{
  uri: "ui://charts/bar-chart",
  name: "Bar Chart Viewer",
  mimeType: "text/html+mcp"
}

// Tool references it in metadata
{
  name: "visualize_data_as_bar_chart",
  description: "Plots data as a bar chart",
  _meta: {
    "ui/resourceUri": "ui://charts/bar-chart"
  }
}

When AI calls the tool, the host application realizes: "Oh, there's a UI component here!" and renders a beautiful interactive interface right in the chat. No workarounds, no hacks - everything's native, standardized, beautiful.

Real Examples That'll Blow Your Mind

1. Analytics Dashboard Right in ChatGPT

Instead of a boring table with numbers - a fully interactive dashboard with charts, filters, drill-down capabilities. Users click, explore, analyze - all inside the chat.

2. Complex System Configurator

Beautiful forms with validation, tooltips, dependent fields. No more "please enter parameter X". Just fill out the form like on a regular website.

3. Visual Workflow Editor

Drag-and-drop business process designer. Right in Claude or ChatGPT. Can you imagine?

4. Interactive Map with Markers

AI analyzes geodata and shows results on a full-featured map with zoom, clickable objects, filtering.

And this is just the beginning! FastMCP.me is already featuring the first servers with MCP Apps support. Installation, as always, is one-click - choose a server, connect it, and it works.

Security First

Of course, running arbitrary HTML from MCP servers is a potential security hole the size of the Grand Canyon. But the teams thought of everything:

  1. Sandboxed iframes - all UI is isolated, no access to the main application
  2. Predeclared templates - hosts can review HTML templates in advance
  3. Auditable messages - all communication through JSON-RPC, everything's logged
  4. Explicit user consent - hosts can require confirmation for UI-initiated actions

This isn't just "build it and forget it". This is thoughtful, multi-layered protection.

Who's Already In

The list of companies already experimenting with MCP Apps is impressive:

  • Postman - API testing right in chat
  • Shopify - store management through visual interfaces
  • HuggingFace - interactive model workflows
  • Goose - IDE-like coding interfaces
  • ElevenLabs - audio players and voice settings

And these are just the ones who've publicly announced support. There are actually many more.

Why This Matters for FastMCP.me

We at FastMCP.me have been preparing for this moment. We already have the infrastructure for hosting and distributing MCP servers. Now we're adding MCP Apps support:

  1. UI Component Marketplace - ready-made visual elements for your servers
  2. Testing Sandbox - verify UI before publishing
  3. Example Gallery - best implementations with source code
  4. One-click Installation - as always, one-click connection for Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, and others

Servers with MCP Apps support are already appearing in our catalog. Look for the special "Interactive UI" badge - these servers can display beautiful interfaces.

Technical Magic Under the Hood

For developers, it's important to understand - this isn't some hack, it's a proper protocol extension:

  • HTML templates with data - static separate from dynamic, everything cached
  • PostMessage + JSON-RPC - no new protocols, using proven technologies
  • Backward compatibility - old servers keep working, new ones can support both modes
  • Progressive enhancement - if host doesn't support UI, server returns text fallback

SDK is already available, documentation is being updated, the community is buzzing with ideas.

What This Means for the Industry

Let's call a spade a spade. MCP Apps isn't just "interfaces in chats". This is a new paradigm for AI interaction.

Before: text → AI → text
Now: text → AI → interactive app → user actions → AI → result

This is a fundamentally new level. AI becomes not just an assistant that responds with text, but a full-fledged platform for running applications.

Imagine:

  • Accountants working with reports directly in Claude
  • Designers editing layouts in ChatGPT
  • Analysts building complex dashboards in Copilot
  • DevOps configuring clusters through visual interfaces in the terminal

This isn't science fiction. It's already happening.

How to Start Right Now

  1. For users: Go to FastMCP.me, find servers with the "Interactive UI" label, install with one click. Try the data visualization server or interactive forms - it's impressive.

  2. For developers:

  3. For businesses: Think about which processes could be improved with interactive interfaces in AI. This could give you a competitive advantage right now.

Looking Ahead

Currently only HTML in iframes is supported. But the roadmap already includes:

  • External URLs - full web applications
  • Remote DOM - more efficient UI synchronization
  • Native widgets - native components for each platform
  • WebAssembly - high-performance applications

In a year, we'll be living in a world where the line between chatbot and full application is completely blurred. And MCP Apps is the first step in that direction.

Our Humble Opinion

MCP Apps is what we've all been waiting for, even if we didn't realize it. It's the natural evolution of AI interfaces. Text chats were good to start, but it's time to move forward.

At FastMCP.me, we're seeing explosive growth in interest for servers with visual components. People don't just want to "talk to AI", they want to solve real problems as efficiently as possible. And MCP Apps provides that capability.

Yes, there are challenges. Security, standardization, compatibility. But the teams at Anthropic, OpenAI, and MCP-UI have shown they can solve complex problems. And judging by the first results - they're solving them brilliantly.

What to Do Right Now

Don't wait for everyone to switch to MCP Apps. Start experimenting today:

  1. Install a couple of servers with Interactive UI from FastMCP.me
  2. Try creating your own simple UI component
  3. Share your experience with the community
  4. Think about how this could change your workflow

The interactive AI interface revolution has begun. And you can be in the front row.

P.S. The first MCP servers with interactive interface support are already available on FastMCP.me. One-click installation for Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, and other AI systems. Stay tuned - something new and amazing appears every day.