MCP Inspector Development Guide

December 5, 2025 ยท View on GitHub

Note: Inspector V2 is under development to address architectural and UX improvements. During this time, V1 contributions should focus on bug fixes and MCP spec compliance. See CONTRIBUTING.md for more details.

Build Commands

  • Build all: npm run build
  • Build client: npm run build-client
  • Build server: npm run build-server
  • Development mode: npm run dev (use npm run dev:windows on Windows)
  • Format code: npm run prettier-fix
  • Client lint: cd client && npm run lint

Code Style Guidelines

  • Use TypeScript with proper type annotations
  • Follow React functional component patterns with hooks
  • Use ES modules (import/export) not CommonJS
  • Use Prettier for formatting (auto-formatted on commit)
  • Follow existing naming conventions:
    • camelCase for variables and functions
    • PascalCase for component names and types
    • kebab-case for file names
  • Use async/await for asynchronous operations
  • Implement proper error handling with try/catch blocks
  • Use Tailwind CSS for styling in the client
  • Keep components small and focused on a single responsibility

Project Organization

The project is organized as a monorepo with workspaces:

  • client/: React frontend with Vite, TypeScript and Tailwind
  • server/: Express backend with TypeScript
  • cli/: Command-line interface for testing and invoking MCP server methods directly