Same shape, different verbs

call_tool was the client-side mirror of @mcp.tool(). Resources and prompts (Lessons 5 and 6) have their own matching pairs.

resources = await session.list_resources()
content = await session.read_resource("notes://today")


prompts = await session.list_prompts()
filled_in = await session.get_prompt("code_review", {"language": "python", "code": "print(1)"})

Reading a resource

result = await session.read_resource("notes://today")
result.contents  # list[TextResourceContents | BlobResourceContents]

Like tool content, contents is a list, a resource can be made of several distinct pieces. Each item has a .uri, a .mimeType, and either .text (for text resources) or .blob (for binary ones, base64-encoded).

Getting a filled-in prompt

result = await session.get_prompt("code_review", {"language": "python", "code": "print(1)"})
result.messages  # list[PromptMessage]

messages is the list of PromptMessage objects you first saw server-side in Lesson 6: each has a .role ("user" or "assistant") and .content. A prompt template can hand back several messages at once, letting a server ship a whole scripted conversation opener, not just a single line.

Why a client needs both

A tool-only client is common, most of this course focuses there, because "let the AI decide what to call" is the dominant use case. But a host application (think Claude Desktop's UI, or your own chatbot in Lesson 15) often wants to show a user what resources or prompt templates a server offers, as attachable context or a picklist of starting points, independent of whatever the AI itself decides to do. Reading resources and prompts is how a client supports that.

Checkpoint

  • session.list_resources() / session.read_resource(uri): the client-side mirror of @mcp.resource().
  • session.list_prompts() / session.get_prompt(name, args): the client-side mirror of @mcp.prompt().
  • A resource's contents and a prompt's messages are both lists, same reasoning as a tool's content: one primitive can hand back several pieces at once.

If anything here still feels unclear, ask before moving to Lesson 14, a closer look at content blocks.