Let's be honest – if I had a dollar for every time someone in a meeting mentioned "MCP servers" while nodding confidently despite having absolutely no idea how to run one, I'd have enough to fund our next company offsite. Most of us are still figuring out what "MCP" actually stands for beyond "that thing that connects APIs to AI" while pretending we've been experts for years.
Today, I'm excited to announce the first of two major features that will save you from late-night Stack Overflow rabbit holes and questionable GitHub repos:
Hosted MCP Server Deployments: Run Model Context Protocol servers directly in Blackbird's hosted environments (so you can stop pretending you know how to configure them locally)
This continues our mission of making APIs AI-ready, or as I like to call it, "ensuring your company can actually deliver on those AI promises your team has been making."
The Local Development Nightmare (And Your Poor, Poor Laptop)
The current state of MCP server development feels like everyone's first attempt at sourdough bread during 2020 – lots of enthusiasm, mixed results, and a suspicious smell coming from someone's kitchen. Those who've ventured into running these servers locally have discovered the joy of watching their laptops slow to a crawl while teammates ask, "Can you just send me your environment setup?" for the fifth time.
With our new hosted MCP server capability, you can:
- Deploy MCP servers to our cloud (no more "let me restart and try again" every 30 minutes)
- Free up local resources for important things (like having 87 browser tabs open)
- Share server endpoints with teammates (who will think you're a genius for making it work)
- Integrate MCP servers into CI/CD pipelines (so you can finally deliver on that "fully automated" promise)
Think of it as skipping the awkward "figuring it out" phase and jumping straight to "I've totally mastered this technology."
Dependency Hell, Be Gone
Let's talk about what this actually means for your day-to-day work. Running MCP servers locally isn't just annoying—it creates a particularly vicious form of dependency hell:
- Each server might require multiple underlying services
- Authentication gets complicated fast (VPNs on top of VPNs anyone?)
- Resource consumption makes your laptop sound like it's preparing for takeoff
We know that many developers spend days setting up local environments just to get to the starting line on a new project.
With hosted MCP servers, that process takes minutes. Your laptop fans will thank you.
For Organizations Still on the AI Fence
If you're still wondering if you should prepare your APIs for AI, let me be direct: yes, you should, unless you enjoy watching your competitors leave you in the digital dust while you're still creating PowerPoints about "potential AI use cases."
The companies moving fastest right now are the ones that have solved the basic infrastructure problems that MCP servers present. Don't be the team still trying to figure out local configuration when everyone else is already building.
Getting Started (It's Easy, I Promise)
Existing Blackbird users: it's already in your dashboard. Go wild.
New users: sign up for a free account. What are you waiting for?
What's Next?
This is just the beginning. In the coming weeks, we'll be announcing another major feature that complements hosted MCP servers perfectly. (Hint: it involves generating MCP servers automatically, because why write code when you can have machines do it for you?)
Read more about our approach to API and AI integration if you're the type who enjoys technical reading that's actually useful.
Until then, deploy some MCP servers to our cloud and enjoy the sudden reduction in your laptop's temperature. Your thighs will thank you.