mcp-inspector, a TUI to debug MCP traffic
Repo: https://github.com/hugozap/mcp-inspector
If you've built or debugged an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, you know the usual routine: reading raw JSON from logs or sprinkling print statements to see what's actually being sent back and forth.
mcp-inspector is a small terminal tool I built to fix that. It sits between an MCP client and server as a proxy, captures every message, and lets you browse them live in a navigable TUI — no configuration needed.
It runs headlessly as the actual server command (for example inside Claude Desktop's config), broadcasting traffic over a Unix socket, while mcp-inspector view connects from any terminal to show requests, responses, notifications and errors in real time. You can filter by message type, search live, and export a session to NDJSON.
It's written in Rust and installable via cargo install mcp-inspector. SSE/HTTP proxy mode is on the roadmap.