🦉 Hoot

MCP Testing Tool — Like Postman, but for the Model Context Protocol.

Test, debug, and explore MCP servers with a beautiful interface. No AI chat needed.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e3add38e-9636-4f40-99d8-f4a2b8f0f056

⚠️ Beta Software — Hoot is in active development. Found a bug? Open an issue. Want to contribute? PRs welcome!

Quick Start

🌐 Try instantly (no install):

👉 hoot.run — Opens in your browser, ready to test.

Or run locally:

npx -y @portkey-ai/hoot

Opens on localhost:8009. One command, zero config.

Features

Core Testing

• Connect to any MCP server — HTTP and SSE transport support
• Auto-detection — Just paste a URL, Hoot figures out the rest
• Execute tools — Test tools with parameters and view responses
• Copy-paste friendly — Everything is clipboard-ready

Authentication & Security

• OAuth 2.1 with automatic discovery and compliance testing (docs)
• JWT-based sessions — Secure local authentication
• Rate limiting & audit logs — Built-in security features
• Localhost-only by default — Safe for local development

Smart Features

• Intelligent tool filtering — Context-aware tool selection powered by AI
• Chat interface — Test tools conversationally with LLM assistance
• Keyboard shortcuts — Lightning-fast navigation (docs)
• 8 beautiful themes — Light & dark modes for every preference (docs)

Sharing & Collaboration

• 🦉 "Try in Hoot" links — Share servers with a single URL (docs)
• Persistent state — Your servers and tools stay configured between sessions

How It Works

Hoot runs a Node.js backend that acts as the MCP client, eliminating CORS issues when connecting to MCP servers from your browser.

Browser (React) → Backend (Node.js/Express) → MCP Servers

Architecture highlights:

• No CORS headaches — Backend handles all MCP connections
• Persistent OAuth tokens — Stored securely in SQLite (~/.hoot/hoot-mcp.db)
• Session-based auth — JWT tokens for secure frontend-backend communication
• Edge-ready — Deploy to Cloudflare Workers for global hosting (guide)

Data Persistence

On hoot.run:

• Server configs & tools — Saved in browser localStorage
• OAuth tokens — Managed by the hosted backend
• Chat history — Preserved in localStorage

On local (npx/npm):

• Server configs & tools — Saved in browser localStorage
• OAuth tokens — Stored in ~/.hoot/hoot-mcp.db (persists across npx runs)
• Chat history — Preserved in localStorage

Your servers stay configured between sessions!

Development

Run from source:

git clone https://github.com/Portkey-AI/hoot
cd hoot
npm install
npm run dev:full

• Backend runs on localhost:8008
• Frontend runs on localhost:8009

Available scripts:

• npm run dev:full — Run both frontend and backend
• npm run backend — Backend only
• npm run dev — Frontend only
• npm run build — Build for npm distribution
• npm run build:cloudflare — Build for Cloudflare Workers

Debugging

Hoot includes a client-side logger accessible from the browser console: