Installation

MCPJam Inspector is designed to be accessible in multiple ways, whether you prefer a quick command-line launch, a containerized environment, or building from source.

Using NPX (Recommended)

The fastest way to get started is by using npx, which downloads and runs the latest version without a permanent installation.

npx @mcpjam/inspector@latest

The application will start and be available at http://localhost:3001.

NPX Command-Line Options

You can customize the launch with the following flags:

--port <number>: Launch the Inspector on a specific port.
```
npx @mcpjam/inspector@latest --port 4000
```
--ollama <model_name>: Start the Inspector and automatically pull and serve a specified Ollama model.
```
npx @mcpjam/inspector@latest --ollama llama3
```
--config <file_path>: Load an mcp.json file to automatically configure your MCP servers on startup.
```
npx @mcpjam/inspector@latest --config ./mcp.json
```

Using Docker

If you prefer a containerized environment, you can run the Inspector using the pre-built image from Docker Hub.

# Run the latest version from Docker Hub
docker run -p 3001:3001 mcpjam/mcp-inspector:latest

# Or run in the background
docker run -d -p 3001:3001 --name mcp-inspector mcpjam/mcp-inspector:latest

For more details on Docker deployment, including development environments and multi-architecture support, see the Docker Deployment Guide.

Desktop Application

For a native desktop experience, you can download pre-built installers for macOS, Windows, and Linux from the project's GitHub Releases page.

To learn more about building the desktop application from source, refer to the Desktop Application Guide.

From Source

To run the Inspector directly from the source code for development or contribution purposes:

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/MCPJam/inspector.git
cd inspector

Install dependencies: This command installs dependencies for the root project, the client, and the server.
```
npm install
npm run install:deps
```
Run the development server: This will start the Vite frontend and Hono backend concurrently with hot-reloading.
```
npm run dev
```

The application will be available at http://localhost:3000.