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The TUI is the Inspector’s terminal interface, with the same interactive exploration of tools, resources, and prompts as the web client. Use it on a remote host over SSH, in a locked-down environment, or when you prefer to stay in the terminal.

The TUI connected to a server, on the Tools tab, showing a tool's input schema.

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Choosing servers

Unlike the CLI, the TUI has no --server <name> flag for picking one entry: it reads its servers from a catalog or config file, loads every server in it, and lets you pick from an on-screen list:
With neither --catalog nor --config, and no ad-hoc target, it uses the default writable catalog ~/.mcp-inspector/mcp.json. See Configuration and flags.

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Tabs

The accelerators avoid collisions rather than always taking the first letter: Protocol takes p so Prompts takes m, and Console takes o because c is the global Connect action.

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Authorizing an HTTP server

  1. Select an HTTP or SSE server and press c to connect.
  2. If the server requires authorization, the TUI starts OAuth automatically and opens the authorization URL in a browser.
  3. When the browser redirect lands on the TUI’s loopback listener, the connection finishes on its own, with no second c.
  4. Use the Auth tab to inspect the resulting OAuth state, or to clear it.
The TUI’s callback listener defaults to http://127.0.0.1:6276/oauth/callback. The port is fixed on purpose: a pre-registered (static) OAuth client, a Client ID Metadata Document (CIMD), or an enterprise-managed IdP all need a redirect URI known in advance. Register that URI once and it works across sessions. On a remote host where your browser is on another machine, forward the callback port so the redirect reaches this listener; see Callback URLs. The trade-off is that only one TUI OAuth flow can hold the port at a time; a second concurrent flow fails with EADDRINUSE. To override it, pass --callback-url or set MCP_OAUTH_CALLBACK_URL: use a different fixed port per instance, or http://127.0.0.1:0/oauth/callback for an OS-assigned ephemeral port when your authorization server registers redirect URIs dynamically.
Redirect URIs must match exactly what you registered. localhost and 127.0.0.1 are different URIs as far as an authorization server is concerned.
Per-server OAuth fields in the catalog (static client id/secret, scopes, the enterprise-managed flag) are applied automatically. Install-wide settings (CIMD, enterprise IdP) come from ~/.mcp-inspector/storage/client.json, the same file the web client’s Client Settings dialog writes. Point at a different one with --client-config or MCP_CLIENT_CONFIG_PATH. See Authorization for the full picture.

The Auth tab. It shows the same OAuth fields as the web client's Connection Info, or reports that the server needs no authorization.

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Requirements

The TUI needs a real TTY with raw-mode support. It will not run usefully in a headless CI job; use the CLI there.