#1111th of 111 in MCP servers for developers
inspector
Inspector for testing and debugging MCP servers via web, CLI or terminal UI
- Stars
- 11.3k
- License
- custom license
- Last commit
- Nov 2026
- Last release
- Nov 2026
- Language
- TypeScript
9,406 on 20 Apr 202611,273 on 9 Nov 2026
From GitHub's daily star counts.
Checked on GitHub.
Overview
MCP Inspector is a developer tool for connecting to Model Context Protocol servers and exercising them. One npm package provides a Vite/React web app with a Node backend, a scriptable CLI for CI smoke tests, an Ink-based TUI, and an experimental `mcpdo` connection CLI. OAuth tokens and stdio env values go to the OS keychain when one is available.
Who it is for: Developers building or debugging MCP servers
Strengths
- Four interfaces in one package: web, CLI, TUI and experimental mcpdo
- CLI supports JSON output and exit codes for shell or CI smoke tests
- Stores OAuth tokens and stdio env values in the OS keychain by default
- Runs with a single npx command, no install step
Weaknesses
- Without a keychain, secrets fall back to unencrypted ~/.mcp-inspector/secrets.json
- v2 requires a recent patched Node (^22.23.4, ^24.22.1 or >=26.12.1)
- External contributions accepted as issues only, not pull requests
- Mixed licensing mid-transition from MIT to Apache-2.0; license detected as NOASSERTION
What it needs
- no GPU
- Docker
- Needs Node.js ^22.23.4 || ^24.22.1 || >=26.12.1
What changed
- 2.14.0 ↗ (opens in a new tab)Security fix
GHSA-2FW8-7JMW-R937, GHSA-H9J8-VJ8G-V3GG, GHSA-RWV7-MH2C-FF2P. “2.14.0 fixes three vulnerabilities reported privately against v2. Upgrade with npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector@latest. One of them, GHSA-2fw8-7jmw-r937, also affects the deprecated v1 line, where…”
- 1.0.4 ↗ (opens in a new tab)Security fix
GHSA-2FW8-7JMW-R937. “1.0.4 is a security release for the deprecated v1 line. Upgrade with npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector@v1-latest, or move to v2 (@latest).”
- 2.13.0 ↗ (opens in a new tab)Security fix
“On October 20, 2026, eMudhra disclosed that the private keys for eight of its intermediate CA certificates could be recovered from the public certificates. On October 21, Node.js shipped security rel…”
From the release notes. No flag means the note does not say so, not that the upgrade is safe.
Quick answers
Is inspector open source?
Its code is public on GitHub under its own license terms; read them before you use it at work.
Can you run inspector with Docker?
Yes. Its repository has a Docker setup: a Dockerfile, a Compose file or a published image.
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