Passing secrets to MCP server written in Python

[DamyanBG]

Pre-submission Checklist

• I have checked that this question would not be more appropriate as an issue in a specific repository
• I have searched existing discussions and documentation for answers

Question Category

• Protocol Specification
• SDK Usage
• Server Implementation
• General Implementation
• Documentation
• Other

Your Question

I created one MCP server app with Python. First I tried to use environment variables to store API KEY. I implemented some code, added the MCP server to the configurations in Claude settings. Here is the example config:

{ "mcpServers": { "your-mcp-server": { "command": "uvx", "args": [ "your-mcp-sever", ], "env": { "DB_HOST": "HOST", ..... } } } }

With that configuration the app does not load the environment variables. I can see other MCP servers, which are on TypeScript and npx use similar configuration settings.

I fixed my problem with using of args and created the MCP server app, but I would like to understand - is it the problem in my configuration? Am I missing something with the usage of uv? What is the best practice to pass secrets to MCP server using STDIO when using Python and uv?

[andrewlayer]

I believe we would ned to see your project in order to determine what is going on here.

[DamyanBG]

@andrewlayer here is a link to the project https://github.com/MCP-Forge/nutritionix-mcp-server