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First Deployment

Prerequisites​

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • ✅ Targetly CLI installed (tly --version)
  • ✅ Authenticated with Targetly (tly login)
  • ✅ Docker installed locally (for testing)
  • ✅ A basic MCP server project

Step 1: Create Your MCP Server​

If you don't have an MCP server yet, let's create a simple one:

mkdir my-first-mcp
cd my-first-mcp

Create a server.py file:

from mcp.server import Server
from mcp.server.sse import SseServerTransport
import uvicorn

app = Server("my-first-mcp")

@app.call_tool()
async def hello(name: str = "World") -> str:
    """Say hello to someone"""
    return f"Hello, {name}!"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    transport = SseServerTransport("/messages")
    uvicorn.run(transport.asgi_app(app), host="0.0.0.0", port=8080)

Create requirements.txt:

mcp
uvicorn

Step 2: Create a Dockerfile​

Create a Dockerfile in your project root:

FROM python:3.11-slim

WORKDIR /app

# Copy requirements and install dependencies
COPY requirements.txt .
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt

# Copy application code
COPY . .

# Expose port
EXPOSE 8080

# Run the server
CMD ["python", "server.py"]

Step 3: Test Locally (Optional)​

Build and test your Docker image locally:

# Build image
docker build -t my-first-mcp .

# Run container
docker run -p 8080:8080 my-first-mcp

# Test in another terminal
curl http://localhost:8080/health

Step 4: Deploy to Targetly​

Deploy your MCP server:

tly deploy

You'll see output like:

📦 Bundling project...
✓ Created bundle (1.8 MB)

🚀 Deploying to Targetly...
✓ Upload complete

🔨 Building Docker image...
Step 1/6 : FROM python:3.11-slim
Step 2/6 : WORKDIR /app
Step 3/6 : COPY requirements.txt .
Step 4/6 : RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
Step 5/6 : COPY . .
Step 6/6 : CMD ["python", "server.py"]
✓ Build successful

🎉 Deployment complete!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📋 ID: abc123def456
🌐 URL: https://abc123def456.prod.targetly.io
📊 Status: Running
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Step 5: Verify Deployment​

Test your deployed MCP server:

# Check if it's running
curl https://abc123def456.prod.targetly.io/health

# View logs
tly logs abc123def456

Step 6: Use Your MCP Server​

Configure your AI client (e.g., Claude Desktop) to use your MCP server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-first-mcp": {
      "url": "https://abc123def456.prod.targetly.io/messages",
      "transport": "sse"
    }
  }
}
Success

Congratulations! Your MCP server is now live and accessible via Targetly.

Next Steps​

  • Sleep/Wake Guide Learn about auto-idle and manual resume

  • MCP Server Best Practices Optimize your MCP server for production

  • View Logs Monitor your deployment

  • Manage Deployments List and manage all deployments

Troubleshooting​

Build failed - dependency error

Problem: Python dependencies failed to install

Solutions:

  • Verify requirements.txt syntax
  • Pin dependency versions
  • Check for platform-specific packages

Container won't start

Problem: Container exits immediately

Solutions:

  • Check logs: tly logs <deployment-id>
  • Verify port 8080 is exposed
  • Ensure server runs on 0.0.0.0 not localhost

URL not accessible

Problem: Deployment URL returns 502/504

Solutions:

  • Wait 30 seconds for container to fully start
  • Check if server is listening on port 8080
  • View logs for startup errors