mcp -manager

MCP Server Manager is a CLI tool designed to help you manage MCP servers across Claude Desktop and Claude Code. It detects where your MCP server configurations live (desktop, user/global, project, and local scopes) and lets you enable, disable, and toggle individual servers while preserving their configurations. You can view detailed information about each server, including which configuration source it comes from, and you can use the interactive mode to select multiple servers to toggle in one shot. The detector tool helps you understand where servers are defined across different files, so you can resolve conflicts between sources and ensure the desired server is active in your project context.

Once installed, you can list all detected MCP servers with mcp list, drill down into details with mcp list -d, or enter interactive mode via mcp interactive to toggle servers with simple keyboard input. You can filter by application (desktop or code) to focus on a subset of servers, and you can manage project-specific servers by adding or modifying settings within the project configuration files. Changes are backed up automatically before application, so you can revert if something isn’t right.

Prerequisites:

• Python 3.8+ (the project is Python-based)
• Git
• Access to install or copy the mcp-manager script to your PATH

Installation steps (globally, recommended):

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/mcp-server-manager.git
cd mcp-server-manager

2. Install or copy the CLI to a PATH location:

# Automatic installation (if an install.sh is provided)
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

# OR manual installation (example):
sudo cp mcp_manager.py /usr/local/bin/mcp-manager
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/mcp-manager

3. Verify installation:

mcp-manager --version

4. Ensure dependencies are installed (if required by the project):

python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
# Install any Python dependencies listed in requirements.txt if present
pip install -r requirements.txt

5. Start using the tool (examples):

# List all MCP servers in the current context
mcp list

# Enter interactive mode for guided management
mcp interactive

Tips and common considerations:

• The tool preserves server configurations when disabling, storing them in a dedicated section so you can re-enable later without losing setup details.
• Backup files are created automatically before changes; you can locate them in your claude config directory or a path specified via CLAUDE_MCP_BACKUP_DIR.
• If you run into issues where no MCP servers are found, ensure Claude Desktop or Claude Code is installed and check the output of mcp list -d to see which configuration files are being scanned.
• You can manage servers across multiple scopes (Desktop, User/Global, Project, Local). Higher-priority configurations override lower ones.
• For advanced use, you can manually edit the configuration files as long as you keep JSON valid; use mcp list to verify changes afterward.