Connect your Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers so mcp‑eval can exercise real tools during evaluation.

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Options at a glance

  • Add from mcp.json (project‑scoped)
  • Import a DXT manifest
  • Programmatic defaults in config or per Agent
  • Mix local stdio with remote SSE/HTTP servers

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Add servers from mcp.json

If your project already defines servers in a mcp.json file (or a path you specify), you can import them: 
mcp-eval server add --from-mcp-json .cursor/mcp.json
Reference: mcp.json format and conventions at https://gofastmcp.com/integrations/mcp-json-configuration.

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Add servers from a DXT manifest

DXT manifests describe an MCP server (command/args/env or URL). Import directly: 
mcp-eval server add --from-dxt ~/Desktop/manifest.dxt
Reference: DXT documentation at https://github.com/anthropics/dxt/blob/main/README.md.

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Programmatic configuration (global defaults)

You can set default servers for all tests via the evaluation config. In mcpeval.yaml: 
default_servers:
  - sse:https://mcp.example.com/sse
  - http:https://mcp.example.com/mcp
  - stdio:npx -y @my/mcp-server
Or programmatically: 
from mcp_eval.config import update_config

update_config({
  "default_servers": [
    "sse:https://mcp.example.com/sse",
    "stdio:npx -y @my/mcp-server",
  ]
})

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Per‑Agent servers

If you are constructing an Agent or AgentSpec, you can override servers at the agent level (recommended for multi‑server agents): 
from mcp_agent.core import AgentSpec

spec = AgentSpec(
  name="fetch-agent",
  servers=[
    "sse:https://mcp.fetcher.dev/sse",
    "stdio:npx -y @bytebase/dbhub",
  ],
)

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Validate connectivity

Before running tests, verify configuration and connectivity: 
# Quick config checks (no network)
mcp-eval validate --quick

# Full validation: connect servers, spin agent, basic probes
mcp-eval validate

# List discovered servers and available tools
mcp-eval server list -v | cat

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Tips

  • Prefer SSE/HTTP for hosted SaaS servers; use stdio for local CLIs.
  • Keep secrets in your secrets file/env rather than hardcoding in mcp.json/DXT.
  • For multi‑server agents, name servers clearly and use Expect.tools.* assertions to verify the correct server/tool was used.