# MCP Inspector

> MIT official MCP server debugger — web, CLI, and TUI

**Category:** AI Agents  
**Pricing:** open-source  
**URL:** https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/tools/inspector  
**GitHub:** https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/inspector  
**Added:** 2026-09-14

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## The Hook

MCP Inspector is the official Model Context Protocol debugger: poke tools/resources/prompts before you wire an agent.

## What's Good

MIT (@modelcontextprotocol/inspector). One binary: web UI (default), --cli for CI/agents, --tui for terminals. npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector against local or remote servers. Reference tooling from the MCP project — not a third-party clone.

## The Catch

Debug surface, not a production MCP gateway or registry (see Smithery) and not transport glue (SuperGateway/mcp-remote). You still author servers elsewhere (FastMCP, etc.). v2 is the active line; pin versions in CI.

## Verdict

Official MIT MCP inspector. Test servers here; ship them elsewhere.