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MCP Inspector

Official visual testing and debugging tool for Model Context Protocol servers.

by Model Context Protocol·added 2026-06-02·
HarnessCLI
Review first review before installing

Open the source and read safety notes before installing.

Citation facts

Source-backed facts for citing this resource, derived directly from the registry — also available as plain text for AI assistants.

Source URLs
https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/tools, https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/inspector
Brand
MCP Inspector
Brand domain
modelcontextprotocol.io
Safety notes
Starts a local inspector UI and proxy process for interactive MCP debugging., Only connect it to MCP servers and endpoints you trust during testing.
Privacy notes
Requests and tool responses from the inspected server may be visible in the local inspector session., Avoid testing with production credentials or private user data unless the environment is isolated.
Author
Model Context Protocol
Claim status
unclaimed
Last verified
2026-06-02

Decision playbook

Review trust signals before you adopt

Signals are present but mixed. Use the checklist below to confirm the source and operational safety for your environment.

Compare context
Selected

0

Current score

78

Baseline

Delta

No baseline selected

No major trust-signal divergence detected in the current selection.

Source and provenance checks

Complete

Confirm ownership and provenance before trusting install instructions.

  • Source link availableRequired

    Open the canonical repository and verify ownership.

    Done
  • Source provenance statusRequired

    Marked as source-backed.

    Done
  • Metadata reviewed

    Registry metadata indicates a reviewed listing.

    Done

Safety and privacy checks

Complete

Validate risk disclosures before installation or API wiring.

  • Safety notes presentRequired

    Review the listed safety guidance before running commands.

    Done
  • Privacy notes presentRequired

    Review data handling notes before connecting accounts or secrets.

    Done
  • Trust level risk gateRequired

    Trust level does not block evaluation.

    Done

Package and install checks

Needs review

Check package metadata and artifact integrity signals.

  • Install payload available

    Install or copy payload is available for review.

    Done
  • Package verification flag

    No package verification flag provided.

    Pending
  • Checksum metadata

    No checksum provided for downloaded artifact.

    Pending

Compare-driven decision checks

Needs review

Use compare context to validate trade-offs before adoption.

  • Compare tray has multiple entries

    Add at least one more entry to compare trust differences.

    Pending
  • Baseline comparison available

    No baseline peer selected yet.

    Pending
  • Diverging trust signals identified

    No major trust-signal divergence found.

    Pending

Setup at a glance

CLI install

Copy-ready — paste the snippet to get started.

Adoption plan

Balanced adoption plan

Current risk score 16/100. Use staged verification before broader rollout.

Risk 16

Pre-adoption checks

Validate source and review signals before any execution.

  • Confirm source provenanceRequired

    Source URL/provenance metadata is present.

    Done
  • Confirm metadata review state

    Listing has review metadata.

    Done
  • Verify install payload

    Install/config payload exists and can be inspected.

    Done

Security checks

Confirm safety, privacy, and package integrity signals.

  • Review safety notesRequired

    Safety notes are present.

    Done
  • Review privacy notesRequired

    Privacy notes are present.

    Done
  • Verify package integrity metadata

    No package verification/checksum metadata.

    Pending

Rollout

Adopt in controlled steps based on the selected plan.

  • Run in isolated sandbox firstRequired

    Use a constrained sandbox and observe behavior across multiple tasks.

    Pending
  • Roll out graduallyRequired

    Roll out to a small cohort before wider usage.

    Pending
  • Set monitoring and fallback

    Define rollback path and monitor errors after adoption.

    Pending

Evidence readiness

Evidence readiness matrix · balanced

Required evidence gates are covered (5/6 signals complete).

Risk 15

Source provenance

Present

Source repository/provenance is listed.

Required in this preset

Metadata review

Present

Review metadata is present.

Required in this preset

Safety notes

Present

Safety notes are present.

Required in this preset

Privacy notes

Present

Privacy notes are present.

Optional in this preset

Package integrity

Missing

Package integrity metadata is missing.

Optional in this preset

Install payload

Present

Install payload is available.

Required in this preset

Required evidence gates are covered for this preset.

Decision timeline

Decision timeline · balanced

5/6 steps complete with no blocking gaps for this preset.

Risk 14

triage

Confirm source provenanceRequired

Source/provenance metadata is available.

Done

triage

Check metadata review statusRequired

Review metadata is available.

Done

verify

Review safety notesRequired

Safety notes are available.

Done

verify

Review privacy notes

Privacy notes are available.

Done

verify

Validate package integrity metadata

Package integrity metadata is missing.

Pending

rollout

Verify install payload and commandsRequired

Install payload is available.

Done

No required blockers for this timeline preset.

Prerequisite readiness

Prerequisite readiness

2 prerequisites to line up before setup.

0/2 ready
Install & runtime1General1

Safety & privacy surface

Safety & privacy surface

2 safety and 2 privacy notes across 3 risk areas. Review closely: credentials & tokens, network access.

3 areas
  • SafetyExecution & processesStarts a local inspector UI and proxy process for interactive MCP debugging.
  • SafetyNetwork accessOnly connect it to MCP servers and endpoints you trust during testing.
  • PrivacyCredentials & tokensRequests and tool responses from the inspected server may be visible in the local inspector session.
  • PrivacyCredentials & tokensAvoid testing with production credentials or private user data unless the environment is isolated.

Disclosure: editorial

Safety notes

  • Starts a local inspector UI and proxy process for interactive MCP debugging.
  • Only connect it to MCP servers and endpoints you trust during testing.

Privacy notes

  • Requests and tool responses from the inspected server may be visible in the local inspector session.
  • Avoid testing with production credentials or private user data unless the environment is isolated.

Prerequisites

  • A local or remote MCP server to inspect.
  • Node.js and npm/npx available in the development environment.

Schema details

Install type
cli
Troubleshooting
No
Source repository stats
Scope
Source repo
Tool listing metadata
Pricing
open-source
Disclosure
editorial
Application category
DeveloperApplication
Operating system
macOS, Windows, Linux
Full copyable content
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node build/index.js

About this resource

Editorial notes

MCP Inspector is the official developer tool for exercising Model Context Protocol servers before wiring them into Claude or another MCP client. It is useful when checking tool definitions, resource responses, server startup behavior, and transport configuration during MCP development.

Why it belongs

  • Maintained under the Model Context Protocol organization.
  • Supports interactive inspection of local MCP server implementations.
  • Provides a practical debugging path before adding a server to a real Claude configuration.

Disclosure

Editorial listing. No paid placement or affiliate link is used.

Source citations

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How it compares

MCP Inspector side by side with 3 alternatives on trust, install, platform support, and disclosed safety notes — all from reviewed registry metadata.

Field

Official visual testing and debugging tool for Model Context Protocol servers.

Open dossier

Official C# SDK for Model Context Protocol servers and clients, maintained by the MCP project in collaboration with Microsoft, with NuGet packages for core MCP APIs, hosting and dependency injection extensions, ASP.NET Core HTTP servers, samples, API documentation, and cross-application access support.

Open dossier

Official Go SDK for Model Context Protocol servers and clients, maintained by the MCP project in collaboration with Google, with packages for MCP, JSON-RPC, OAuth primitives, OAuth protected-resource metadata, clients, servers, transports, examples, and conformance work.

Open dossier

Official Java SDK for Model Context Protocol clients and servers, maintained in collaboration with Spring AI, with Java 17+ support, Maven artifacts, synchronous and asynchronous APIs, Reactive Streams, Project Reactor, JDK HttpClient, Servlet transport, JSON binding modules, and conformance tests.

Open dossier
Next steps
Trust
Review statusReviewedMaintainer reviewedReviewedMaintainer reviewedReviewedMaintainer reviewedReviewedMaintainer reviewed
Package trustPackage not verifiedPackage not verifiedPackage not verifiedPackage not verified
Source provenanceSource-backedSource-backedSource-backedSource-backed
Submitter
Install riskReview firstReview firstReview firstReview first
Notes Safety ✓ Privacy ✓ Safety ✓ Privacy ✓ Safety ✓ Privacy ✓ Safety ✓ Privacy ✓
Brand
Categorytoolstoolstoolstools
SourceSource-backedSource-backedSource-backedSource-backed
AuthorModel Context ProtocolModel Context ProtocolModel Context ProtocolModel Context Protocol
Added2026-06-022026-06-182026-06-182026-06-18
Platforms
Harness
Source repo
Safety notesStarts a local inspector UI and proxy process for interactive MCP debugging. Only connect it to MCP servers and endpoints you trust during testing.The official C# SDK is a protocol library; production risk comes from the MCP tools, resources, prompts, transports, and identity flows you implement with it. Treat every MCP tool handler as an API endpoint: validate arguments, enforce permissions, bound side effects, and sanitize errors. HTTP MCP servers need normal web-service controls, including authentication, TLS, request limits, logging policy, and abuse protections. Cross-application access and identity assertion flows are security-sensitive and should be tested against the current MCP specification and enterprise policy.The official Go SDK is a protocol library; the risk is in the MCP clients, servers, tools, resources, prompts, and transports you build with it. Validate inputs, enforce capability checks, and bound side effects for every tool handler. Use local transports for local-only integrations, and add authentication, TLS, authorization, logging, and rate limits before exposing network transports. OAuth and protected-resource metadata are security-sensitive surfaces; test them against the current MCP specification and client expectations.The official Java SDK is a protocol library; production risk comes from your MCP tools, resources, prompts, transports, authorization hooks, and framework integration. Validate tool inputs, enforce caller permissions, bound side effects, and avoid returning raw Java exceptions or internal stack details to MCP clients. Servlet, Spring, and remote transport deployments need authentication, TLS, request limits, observability policy, cancellation behavior, and abuse protection. Spring AI MCP security and annotation support may simplify integration, but application owners still need to review authorization, tenant boundaries, and data retention.
Privacy notesRequests and tool responses from the inspected server may be visible in the local inspector session. Avoid testing with production credentials or private user data unless the environment is isolated.MCP clients and servers built with the SDK may expose tool arguments, tool results, resource contents, prompt templates, user identity assertions, errors, traces, and logs. Avoid leaking private resources, customer data, internal identifiers, tokens, privileged paths, or operational metadata in schemas, responses, examples, and logs. Document which MCP client, server, model provider, transport, and logging system can observe each request before production use.MCP clients and servers built with the SDK may expose request metadata, tool arguments, tool results, resource contents, prompt templates, OAuth state, errors, traces, and logs. Do not leak private resource contents, customer data, internal identifiers, tokens, privileged paths, or operational metadata in schemas, error messages, examples, or logs. Document which model provider, client, server, and transport can observe each request before deploying outside localhost.Java MCP clients and servers may expose tool arguments, tool results, resource contents, prompt templates, request metadata, correlation IDs, logs, traces, and authorization context. Avoid leaking secrets, customer data, private resources, internal identifiers, stack traces, privileged paths, or token values through schemas, responses, errors, or logs. Document which MCP client, server process, Java framework, model provider, transport, and observability system can observe each request.
Prerequisites
  • A local or remote MCP server to inspect.
  • Node.js and npm/npx available in the development environment.
  • .NET project compatible with the SDK package targets and your chosen MCP transport.
  • A package choice: `ModelContextProtocol.Core`, `ModelContextProtocol`, or `ModelContextProtocol.AspNetCore`.
  • Authentication, authorization, and transport-security requirements for any HTTP-accessible MCP server.
  • Reviewed tool, resource, prompt, and identity-flow behavior before deploying beyond local development.
  • Go toolchain compatible with the SDK's current `go.mod` requirement and Go support policy.
  • A target MCP spec version and compatibility plan for the clients or servers you need to support.
  • Authentication, authorization, and transport-security requirements for non-local MCP deployments.
  • Reviewed tool, resource, prompt, and OAuth behavior before exposing production services.
  • Java 17 or newer and a Maven or Gradle build configured for the selected SDK artifact version.
  • A choice of core Java SDK usage, Spring AI MCP integration, or both.
  • A target transport, such as stdio, JDK HttpClient, Servlet, WebFlux, WebMVC, or another framework path.
  • Authentication, authorization, and data-exposure requirements for production clients and servers.
Install
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node build/index.js
dotnet add package ModelContextProtocol
go get github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk
mvn dependency:get -Dartifact=io.modelcontextprotocol.sdk:mcp:2.0.0
Config
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