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Oak & Ivory is the sample retail MCP App that ships with Metabind. It demonstrates the patterns most product MCP Apps will share — a Data Tool that searches a catalog, an Interactive Tool that renders product details, and a layout component reused across multiple Tools. This page walks through what’s in it and why each piece exists.

What Oak & Ivory does

The template defines 12 tools — 8 Interactive Tools and 4 Data Tools. This page walks through two of them: Together they support flows like:
A user asks for running shoes; the AI calls product_search, then product_detail, and the user sees an interactive product card rendered inline.
The AI decides when to chain — product_search returns JSON, product_detail returns interactive UI.

Get the sample

Two ways:
  1. In Metabind Studio onboarding. When you sign up, onboarding offers the MCP Starter Project (the Oak & Ivory retail demo). Metabind Studio provisions the components, Types, and sample data.
  2. From a template. In an existing organization, click New Project → Create MCP Server, then choose MCP Starter Project.
You get a fully working MCP App with no further setup. Open the project to see the components, test the tools, and connect a host.
The new-project sample picker in Metabind Studio with the Oak & Ivory retail template available alongside a blank starter

What’s in the project

The sample API runs on Metabind’s infrastructure — no external dependencies to set up. For a production deployment, the product_search handler would point at your real catalog.

How product_search works

The Data Tool’s handler queries the catalog through the Metabind Content API and maps each result to a product:
A real product would replace the Content API URL with their own API, keep its key in env.secrets, and likely transform the response shape. The patterns are what generalize: schema validation, V8 sandbox, output validation, sandbox limits. See Sandboxed execution for the runtime model.

How product_detail works

The Interactive Tool is bound to the ProductDetail component. Its input schema mirrors the component’s properties:
When the AI calls product_detail with a product, the platform:
  1. Validates the input against the schema.
  2. Compiles ProductDetail’s BindJS layout against the input.
  3. Returns an MCP UI resource for the host to render.
The rendered view then calls the product_lookup tool to load the product’s title, price, description, and image. Inside your own app via the Assistant SDK, the card renders as SwiftUI on iOS and Jetpack Compose on Android. Web hosts like Claude and ChatGPT render it as React, via @metabindai/bindjs-react in a sandboxed iframe.

Sub-component reuse

ProductDetail is composed from smaller pieces — BrandBackground and EnvironmentSizeClass. These are normal BindJS components in the project, available as building blocks for other layouts. The template’s other layouts already reuse them: ProductCarousel combines BrandBackground, EnvironmentSizeClass, and ProductCard. The sub-components carry the styling through.

Component allowlist

The template declares its allowlists on layout slots: ProductGroupings allows ProductSection, and ProductSection allows ProductCarousel. If a new MCP App reused this package and added a LandingHero layout, that layout would declare its own slot allowlists. See Component allowlists.

Connecting Oak & Ivory to Claude Desktop

Once the sample is in your account:
  1. Open the Server tab in the project sidebar.
  2. Copy the production URL.
  3. Add it in Claude Desktop as a custom connector. See Connect to Claude Desktop.
In Claude Desktop, ask:
Claude calls product_search, picks the top result, then calls product_detail to render it. You see an interactive product card inline in the conversation.

Embedding Oak & Ivory in your own app

To embed the same tools in a custom app via the Assistant SDK, see Assistant SDK overview. Point the SDK at the Oak & Ivory project, choose the Metabind Agent proxy or your own Anthropic key, and ship. The same product_search and product_detail calls work, and the rendered cards appear as SwiftUI on iOS, Jetpack Compose on Android, and React on the web.

Customizing Oak & Ivory

Once Oak & Ivory is in your account, it’s a real project — modify it freely:
  • Replace the sample API. Point product_search at your real catalog and add an API key secret.
  • Restyle the components. Edit ProductCard, change colors, change layout.
  • Add new tools. A cart_add, a wishlist_save, a recommendations Data Tool. Each becomes another Type.
  • Publish. When you’re done, publish the package — it’s now your own MCP App.
Starting from the sample is the recommended path. The shape is correct; the content is yours to evolve.

Your first MCP App

The end-to-end tutorial that uses Oak & Ivory.

Build an Interactive Tool

The pattern product_detail follows.

Build a Data Tool

The pattern product_search follows.

Connect to Claude Desktop

Try Oak & Ivory’s tools in a real host.