MCP Inspector

Point it at an MCP server, local or remote, and see exactly what the server offers: list and call tools, read resources, render prompts, walk through OAuth, and replay requests. The CLI mode prints JSON and uses exit codes, so it works as a smoke test in CI.

When to use it

• You’re building an MCP server and want to call its tools without wiring up a full agent.
• You’re vetting someone else’s server and want to see its real tool descriptions before an agent does.
• You want a connect → list → call → assert check in a pipeline (--cli --format json).

Before you install

Connecting to a stdio server runs that server’s command on your machine. Do it in a container or VM for servers you haven’t read. Leave DANGEROUSLY_OMIT_AUTH and DANGEROUSLY_BIND_ALL_INTERFACES unset. On Linux or in containers without a keychain, read the secret-storage doc before saving OAuth credentials.