Running Servers¶

mcpplay works with any MCP server that communicates over stdio.

Python servers¶

mcpplay run server.py

mcpplay runs the script with your current Python interpreter, so it uses whatever virtual environment is active.

Non-Python servers¶

Use --command for anything else:

mcpplay run --command "node server.js"
mcpplay run --command "uvx my-mcp-server"
mcpplay run --command "./my-server --port 3000"

Environment variables¶

Pass environment variables to the server process:

mcpplay run server.py --env API_KEY=sk-xxx --env DATABASE_URL=postgres://...

These are merged on top of your current shell environment.

Common options¶

# Custom port
mcpplay run server.py --port 9000

# Don't open the browser
mcpplay run server.py --no-open

# Disable hot reload
mcpplay run server.py --no-reload

# Debug logging
mcpplay run server.py --verbose

See the CLI Reference for all options.