pytest-mcp-plugin

pytest for MCP servers — the testing framework for the Model Context Protocol.

pip install pytest-mcp-plugin
mcp-test demo       # runs a bundled MCP server + tests in 5 seconds

About the name. This package is pytest-mcp-plugin on PyPI. The mcp-test name is reserved by Anthropic for their official MCP SDK, and PyPI's name-similarity policy blocks close variants. The CLI binary is still mcp-test, the Python module is still mcp_test.

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Why this exists

MCP servers turn LLM output into real-world side-effects: file reads, SQL queries, HTTP calls, shell commands. Most of them ship with zero automated tests. pytest-mcp-plugin is the missing test harness:

• Real protocol coverage — runs against Anthropic's own @modelcontextprotocol/conformance suite in CI on every PR. Our bundled demo server passes the suite modulo features it intentionally doesn't implement (locked in conformance-baseline.yml).
• Batteries-included security packs — opt-in mixin classes that test path traversal, SQL injection, credential leakage, and shell-metacharacter injection against your server with one subclass declaration.
• stdio + Streamable-HTTP — same fixtures, same assertions, both transports. Includes an in-process FastMCP harness for sub-second tests.
• Built for CI — pytest-native, JUnit XML output, automatic wire-trace dumps on CI failure, mcp-test GitHub Action for one-line integration.

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60-second tour

pip install pytest-mcp-plugin
mcp-test demo

That spins up a bundled stdio MCP server and runs a real test suite against it — no setup, no API keys, no servers to write first.

test_demo.py::test_lists_tools         PASSED
test_demo.py::test_echo                PASSED
test_demo.py::test_add                 PASSED
test_demo.py::test_uppercase           PASSED
test_demo.py::test_fail_returns_error  PASSED

✅ Demo passed. Now write tests for your own MCP server:
   mcp-test init

For HTTP / FastMCP servers:

pip install 'pytest-mcp-plugin[fastmcp]'
python -m mcp_test._demo_server_http &     # boots on :8765
mcp-test conformance --url http://127.0.0.1:8765/mcp

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Test your own server

cd my-mcp-server/
mcp-test init
pytest --mcp-command "python my_server.py" -v

Or pin the command in your pyproject.toml:

[tool.mcp-test]
command = "python my_server.py"
timeout = 10

…then just run:

mcp-test run

For per-method timeouts, prefer the built-in smart defaults:

mcp-test run --smart-timeouts
# or list explicit overrides:
pytest --mcp-timeout-method "tools/call=30" --mcp-timeout-method "sampling/createMessage=120"

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Write tests

# tests/test_my_server.py
from mcp_test import assert_tool_ok, assert_tool_error, assert_tool_text_contains


def test_search_returns_results(mcp_client):
    result = mcp_client.call_tool("search", query="machine learning")
    assert_tool_ok(result)
    assert len(result.content) > 0


def test_search_handles_empty_query(mcp_client):
    result = mcp_client.call_tool("search", query="")
    assert_tool_error(result)


def test_search_schema(mcp_client):
    tools = mcp_client.list_tools()
    search = tools.find("search")
    assert search.required == ["query"]
    assert search.properties["query"]["type"] == "string"

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Batteries-included security test packs

If your server fits one of these shapes, you get 4–8 production-grade security assertions for free by subclassing one mixin:

Pack	Catches
FilesystemServerTests	path traversal, absolute-path acceptance, sandbox escape via symlinks, resource scope creep
DatabaseServerTests	read-only tools that quietly mutate, SQL injection via parameter concatenation
APIWrapperTests	tools that call upstream anonymously without configured creds, API-key leakage in tool output
ShellExecTests	shell=True injection (canary-probed), allowlist bypass, hidden non-zero exits

Each pack ships with a worked-example demo server that passes the pack — look in examples/<server>/ for the reference implementation and the test file that opts in. Copy-paste-modify is the intended workflow.

from mcp_test.test_packs import FilesystemServerTests

class TestMyFsServer(FilesystemServerTests):
    expected_tools = ("read_file", "list_directory")
    read_tool = "read_file"
    list_tool = "list_directory"
    safe_path = "data/known-good.txt"
    # That's it — you now have 5 security tests.

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MCP spec conformance

pytest-mcp-plugin runs Anthropic's official @modelcontextprotocol/conformance suite against the bundled demo server on every PR. The current expected-failures baseline (features the minimal demo doesn't implement) is locked in conformance-baseline.yml; any unexpected failure in CI fails the build.

To run the suite against your server:

mcp-test conformance --url http://127.0.0.1:8765/mcp
# or for a stdio server through the bridge:
mcp-test conformance --command "python my_server.py"

Add --offline to skip the npx round-trip and run our local smoke scenarios only.

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Use as a library

from mcp_test import MCPTestClient

with MCPTestClient.from_command("python my_server.py") as client:
    tools = client.list_tools()
    print(tools.names())

    result = client.call_tool("echo", message="hello")
    print(result.text())

For HTTP / Streamable-HTTP:

from mcp_test.http_client import HTTPMCPTestClient

with HTTPMCPTestClient.from_url("http://127.0.0.1:8765/mcp") as client:
    print(client.list_tools().names())

For FastMCP apps, skip the subprocess entirely:

from fastmcp import FastMCP
from mcp_test.fastmcp import FastMCPHarness

app = FastMCP("my-server")

@app.tool()
def echo(msg: str) -> str: return msg

with FastMCPHarness(app) as client:
    assert client.call_tool("echo", msg="hi").text() == "hi"

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Run on every PR (GitHub Action)

Drop this into any repo:

# .github/workflows/mcp-tests.yml
name: MCP Tests

on:
  pull_request:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  mcp-test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: yagna-1/mcp-test@v0.3.0
        with:
          command: "python my_server.py"
          test-dir: "tests"

The action installs pytest-mcp-plugin, runs your suite against your MCP server, and uploads a JUnit XML report. On failures, it also uploads any wire-trace dumps from mcp-traces/.

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CLI reference

Command	Description
mcp-test demo	Run the bundled demo server + tests (zero setup)
mcp-test init	Scaffold tests/ with example MCP tests
mcp-test run -c "python server.py"	Run pytest against your server
mcp-test snapshot -c "..."	Run snapshot tests (--update to refresh)
mcp-test coverage -c "..."	Print coverage report (tools/prompts/resources)
mcp-test validate -c "..."	Validate tool input schemas
mcp-test conformance --url "..."	Run Anthropic's conformance suite via npx (or --offline)
mcp-test bench -c "..."	Run lightweight p50/p95/p99 regression probes

All commands accept --help for full options.

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Fixtures

The pytest plugin auto-registers four fixtures:

Fixture	Scope	Use for
mcp_client	session	Fast — one server process for the whole test run
mcp_client_fresh	function	Clean state per test
sandboxed_client	function	Fresh server with cwd=tmp_path and DATA_DIR=tmp_path
snapshot	function	Snapshot testing helper

pytest --mcp-command "python my_server.py" --mcp-timeout 15 \
  --mcp-timeout-method tools/call=30 \
  --mcp-trace .mcp-test/trace.jsonl

--mcp-timeout-method METHOD=SECONDS may be passed multiple times. On CI, failing tests automatically dump recent JSONL wire frames to mcp-traces/.

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Spec-version markers

Mark tests by required MCP spec version; the plugin auto-skips them against older servers.

import pytest

@pytest.mark.mcp_v3  # requires spec >= 2025-06-18
def test_uses_recent_feature(mcp_client):
    ...

Available markers: mcp_v2 (≥ 2025-03-26), mcp_v3 (≥ 2025-06-18), mcp_v4 (≥ 2025-11-25).

---

Assertion helpers

from mcp_test import (
    assert_tool_ok,
    assert_tool_error,
    assert_tool_error_code,
    assert_tool_text_contains,
    assert_tool_text_equals,
    assert_tool_content_count,
    assert_policy_allows,
    assert_policy_blocks,
    assert_task_completes_within,
    assert_task_cancelled,
    assert_task_failed,
)

---

Architecture

pytest-mcp-plugin runs your MCP server as a subprocess (stdio) or speaks Streamable-HTTP to a running endpoint, all over JSON-RPC 2.0. A background message pump handles response routing, notification dispatching, and concurrent request support.

mcp_test/
  client.py              # stdio JSON-RPC client
  http_client.py         # Streamable-HTTP + legacy-SSE client
  plugin.py              # pytest plugin (fixtures, options, markers)
  cli.py                 # mcp-test CLI
  assertions.py          # assert_tool_*, assert_policy_*, assert_task_*
  schema_validator.py    # JSON Schema validation for tool inputs
  coverage.py            # tools/prompts/resources coverage tracker
  snapshot.py            # snapshot testing
  auth.py                # OAuth / PKCE / RFC 9728 helpers
  bench.py               # lightweight regression benchmark probes
  conformance.py         # bridge to @modelcontextprotocol/conformance
  compliance.py          # conformance score helpers
  fastmcp.py             # in-process FastMCP harness adapter
  otel.py                # optional OpenTelemetry tracing facade
  replay.py              # deterministic wire-trace replay
  pagination.py          # cursor pagination helpers
  test_packs.py          # batteries-included security test packs
  timeouts.py            # per-method timeout policy
  wire_trace.py          # JSONL wire trace recorder
  types.py               # ToolResult, ToolSchema, MCPError, ...
  _demo_server.py        # bundled stdio demo server
  _demo_server_http.py   # bundled FastMCP HTTP demo server

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Status

pytest-mcp-plugin is beta. The CLI surface, plugin API, and test-pack class attributes are stable; minor internals (snapshot format, schema validator details) may still change before 1.0.

Roadmap

See ROADMAP.md for what's next and how we plan to complement — not compete with — Anthropic's official conformance + inspector tools.

Contributing

Bug reports, feature requests, and PRs welcome at github.com/yagna-1/mcp-test.

License

MIT