Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Sova and MCP Servers

Q: What is an MCP Server?

A: MCP (Model Context Protocol) server acts as a bridge, allowing AI models to access and interact with external data sources and tools. It provides a standardized way for applications to expose contextual information to Large Language Models (LLMs).

Q: What is Sova?

A: Sova is a TypeScript framework for building MCP servers. It simplifies the process of creating servers that can handle client sessions and expose tools, resources, and prompts to AI models.

Q: What are the key features of Sova?

A: Sova offers features like simple tool/resource/prompt definition, Standard Schema compliance (Zod, ArkType, Valibot), authentication, session management, content handling (image/audio), logging, error handling, SSE, CORS, progress notifications, typed events, prompt auto-completion, and a CLI for testing.

Q: What is Standard Schema, and why is it important?

A: Standard Schema is a specification for defining tool parameters. Sova uses this, allowing you to use validation libraries like Zod, ArkType, or Valibot, ensuring data integrity.

Q: What is UBOS?

A: UBOS is a Full-stack AI Agent Development Platform focused on bringing AI agents to every business department. It helps orchestrate agents, connect them with enterprise data, and build custom agents and multi-agent systems.

Q: How does Sova integrate with UBOS?

A: Sova MCP servers seamlessly integrate into the UBOS platform, providing a robust and scalable solution. UBOS offers infrastructure, orchestration, security, monitoring, and deployment management for your Sova-powered AI agents.

Q: What are some use cases for Sova and MCP Servers?

A: Use cases include AI-powered customer service, intelligent automation, data analysis and reporting, content creation/curation, and personalized recommendations.

Q: How do I install Sova?

A: Install Sova using npm: npm install sova

Q: Can Sova return image or audio content?

A: Yes, Sova supports returning images and audio content through the imageContent and audioContent functions, respectively. You can provide the content via URL, file path, or buffer.

Q: How do I handle errors in Sova?

A: Throw UserError instances for errors that are meant to be shown to the user.

Q: How can I test my Sova server?

A: Use the sova dev command with mcp-cli or the sova inspect command with MCP Inspector.

Q: What is SSE in the context of Sova and MCP?

A: Server-Sent Events (SSE) provide a mechanism for servers to send real-time updates to clients over an HTTPS connection. In Sova, SSE is primarily used to enable remote MCP communication.

Q: What are Tool Annotations in Sova?

A: Tool Annotations provide richer context and control by adding metadata about a tool’s behavior. Annotations include title, readOnlyHint, destructiveHint, idempotentHint, and openWorldHint.

Q: How do I define Resources in Sova?

A: Resources represent any kind of data that an MCP server wants to make available to clients, such as file contents or screenshots. You can add them using server.addResource.

Q: What are Prompts in Sova?

A: Prompts enable servers to define reusable prompt templates and workflows that clients can easily surface to users and LLMs. Add them using server.addPrompt.

Q: How do I implement Authentication in Sova?

A: You can authenticate clients using a custom function defined in the authenticate option when creating the Sova server.

Q: What are Sessions in Sova?

A: The session object is an instance of sovaSession and it describes active client sessions. We allocate a new server instance for each client connection to enable 1:1 communication between a client and the server.