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Quickstart Guide

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Prerequisites

Before testing, you’ll need an MCP server to test against. You’ll also need:
1

Install MCP Testing

pip install mcp-testing
2

Set Up API Keys

Export your API keys as environment variables:
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-your_key_here"
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-your_key_here"
3

Complete Interactive Onboarding

Run the interactive quickstart command:
mcp-t quickstart
This command will:

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Show Setup Guide

You’ll see a comprehensive guide with all available commands and workflows.

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Validate Your API Keys

The system checks that your ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is properly configured. If missing, you’ll see:
❌ Missing ANTHROPIC_API_KEY environment variable

Set up your API key:
  export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_key_here
  # Get your API key: https://console.anthropic.com/

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Create Your First Configuration

The quickstart will prompt you to create:Server Configuration:
  • Server ID (easy to remember, e.g., “my-server”)
  • Server name (descriptive name)
  • Server URL (your MCP server endpoint)
Test Suite Configuration:
  • Suite ID (easy to remember, e.g., “basic-tests”)
  • Suite name (descriptive name)
  • Test cases with:
    • Test ID
    • User message (what the AI agent will say)
    • Success criteria (what constitutes a pass)

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Set Up Shell Completion

Optionally configure tab completion for the CLI commands.
4

Run Your First Test

Now run the test suite you just created:
mcp-t run basic-tests my-server

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Next Steps

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Explore More Commands

# List your configurations
mcp-t list

# Run compliance tests
mcp-t compliance my-server

# Run security tests  
mcp-t security my-server

# Create more test suites
mcp-t create suite

# Add more servers
mcp-t create server

# Generate test suites automatically
mcp-t generate

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Understand Your Results

Each test includes:
  • Conversation transcript - Full dialogue between AI agent and your server
  • Judge evaluation - LLM analysis of whether success criteria were met
  • Tool calls - Which MCP tools were used during the conversation
  • Confidence score - How confident the judge is in the verdict

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Learn Core Concepts

Now that you’ve run your first test, learn more about:

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Troubleshooting

Need more help? Check out our troubleshooting guide or FAQ.
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