{"slug": "mcp-inspector", "name": "MCP Inspector", "category": "dev-libs", "category_name": "Libraries and frameworks", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 3.012, "rising": 3.0, "first": "2026-03-17", "latest": "2026-08-05", "why": "It\u2019s a nice tool, can be used interactively, can be used as a CLI.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 0, "compare": 1, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "It\u2019s a nice tool, can be used interactively, can be used as a CLI.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "modelcontextprotocol.io", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/tools/inspector", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["MCP Inspector"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 786928752, "item_id": 49183047, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49183047", "by": "MP_1729", "date": "2026-08-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Why didn't Simon use MCP Inspector?", "excerpt": "wtf? Why didn't Simon use MCP Inspector? https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/2026-07-28/tools/inspector I feel like 5% of people who develop MCP Servers for a living and 10% of the people who develop MCP Clients for a living use the MCP Inspector and understand the Protocol.", "context": "", "use_case": "Testing MCP servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stateless MCP has recaptured my interest"}, {"id": 786854208, "item_id": 49178388, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49178388", "by": "ameshkov", "date": "2026-08-04", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It\u2019s a nice tool, can be used interactively, can be used as a CLI.", "excerpt": "> I couldn\u2019t find a great CLI tool for interactively probing an MCP server What about mcp-inspector? It\u2019s a nice tool, can be used interactively, can be used as a CLI. https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/inspector", "context": "", "use_case": "probing MCP servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stateless MCP has recaptured my interest"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["testing mcp servers", "probing mcp servers"], "compared": [], "makers": [{"id": 736382513, "item_id": 46023907, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46023907", "by": "luigipederzani", "date": "2025-11-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We also shipped an MCP Inspector to make the dev loop much less painful", "excerpt": "Building MCP Apps (MCP servers with Apps SDK support) is pretty painful right now. You need to: 1. Spin up a server that returns UI components. 2. Hand-write a bunch of JSON schemas + tool wiring So we open-sourced a high-level MCP Server SDK that basically lets you have both the MCP server and React components in the same place: - Every React component you put in your resources/ folder is automatically built and exp", "context": "", "use_case": "Debug MCP servers and UI", "switched_from": "", "story": "MCP Apps: Extending servers with interactive user interfaces"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49131438", "title": "Stateless MCP has recaptured my interest", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47412524", "title": "Ask HN: With Promptfoo acquired by OpenAI, what are MCP devs using for testing?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46020502", "title": "MCP Apps: Extending servers with interactive user interfaces", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"compare": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 787004288, "item_id": 49187768, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49187768", "by": "luigipederzani", "date": "2026-08-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "which is far from the best MCP inspector out there we hosted an online version of the mcp-use inspector which is pretty convenient: https://inspector.manufact.com/inspector", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stateless MCP has recaptured my interest"}, {"id": 786928752, "item_id": 49183047, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49183047", "by": "MP_1729", "date": "2026-08-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Why didn't Simon use MCP Inspector?", "excerpt": "wtf? Why didn't Simon use MCP Inspector? https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/2026-07-28/tools/inspector I feel like 5% of people who develop MCP Servers for a living and 10% of the people who develop MCP Clients for a living use the MCP Inspector and understand the Protocol.", "context": "", "use_case": "Testing MCP servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stateless MCP has recaptured my interest"}, {"id": 786890832, "item_id": 49180677, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49180677", "by": "evalstate", "date": "2026-08-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "fast-agent is very good at this (disclosure: author) you can specify --url, --npx and include --auth $TOKEN on the command line. you can also interactively connect with /connect, and pixel peep transport details https://fast-agent.ai/mcp/mcp-inspect-transport/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stateless MCP has recaptured my interest"}, {"id": 786854208, "item_id": 49178388, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49178388", "by": "ameshkov", "date": "2026-08-04", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It\u2019s a nice tool, can be used interactively, can be used as a CLI.", "excerpt": "> I couldn\u2019t find a great CLI tool for interactively probing an MCP server What about mcp-inspector? It\u2019s a nice tool, can be used interactively, can be used as a CLI. https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/inspector", "context": "", "use_case": "probing MCP servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stateless MCP has recaptured my interest"}, {"id": 758618227, "item_id": 47413639, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47413639", "by": "westurner", "date": "2026-03-17", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "MCP Playground, MCPSpec, MCPjam, MCP Inspector, mcpbr", "excerpt": "/? mcp test: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=mcp+test : MCP Playground, MCPSpec, MCPjam, MCP Inspector, mcpbr mcpbr > Supported Benchmarks : https://github.com/supermodeltools/mcpbr#supported-benchmarks : > MCPToolBench++, ToolBench, AgentBench, WebArena, TerminalBench, InterCode; SWE-bench,", "context": "", "use_case": "testing MCP servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: With Promptfoo acquired by OpenAI, what are MCP devs using for testing?"}]}