explaingit

tamish560/mcprobe

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

2GoAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

A command line tool that scans MCP servers for security risks like hidden prompt injection, tool name collisions, and unsafe file access before you connect them to an AI agent.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((mcprobe))
    What it does
      Scans MCP servers
      Finds security risks
      Detects drift over time
    Tech stack
      Go
      Standard library only
    Use cases
      Prompt injection detection
      Tool shadowing detection
      CI security scanning
    Audience
      Developers
      Security engineers
    Checks
      Prompt injection
      Path traversal
      Missing metadata

Code map

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Scan a new MCP server for hidden prompt injection before connecting it to an AI agent.

USE CASE 2

Detect when two MCP servers define the same tool name, which can confuse an agent about which one it is calling.

USE CASE 3

Save a baseline snapshot of a trusted server and get alerted if it changes later without your knowledge.

USE CASE 4

Run automated MCP security checks in a CI pipeline using SARIF output.

What is it built with?

Go

How does it compare?

tamish560/mcprobeanomalroil/1keyanshuman852/dasan-router-cli
Stars222
LanguageGoGoGo
Last pushed2019-05-17
MaintenanceDormant
Setup difficultyeasymoderatemoderate
Complexity2/53/53/5
Audiencedeveloperops devopsops devops

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

Single static binary with no external dependencies.

Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

mcprobe is a command line security tool for checking MCP servers, which are the plug-in style services that AI agents connect to for extra tools and abilities, before you trust them with access to your files or shell. The author's argument is that people connect these servers to their AI agents without checking what is actually inside them first, and mcprobe fills that gap by reading every tool description, schema, and resource link a server exposes and flagging anything suspicious. The tool ships as a single binary with no outside dependencies, built entirely with Go's standard library. It checks for several specific problems: hidden prompt injection text buried in a tool's description that could trick an AI model into following unintended instructions, two servers claiming the same tool name so the agent cannot tell which one it is really calling, tools that ask for access to sensitive files like SSH keys or environment files, path patterns that could let a tool escape its intended folder, descriptions that are unusually long and might be hiding something, and tools with missing descriptions that force the model to guess what they do. You can scan a server connected over standard input and output, an npm package, an HTTP endpoint, or a server sent events endpoint. It can also save a snapshot of what a server looks like today and later compare against that snapshot to detect if the server has quietly changed, for example if a tool's description was rewritten after the fact. Results can be printed as readable text, structured JSON, or the SARIF format used by many continuous integration systems, and the tool exits with a specific code depending on how risky its findings are. It can be installed directly through Go's install command, built from source, or downloaded as a prebuilt binary from the project's releases page. The project is released under the MIT license.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Walk me through scanning my local MCP server with mcprobe over stdio.
Prompt 2
Explain what prompt injection patterns mcprobe looks for and why they matter.
Prompt 3
Show me how to set up a baseline and detect drift when an MCP server changes.
Prompt 4
Help me wire mcprobe's SARIF output into a GitHub Actions workflow.
Prompt 5
What does mcprobe's risk score from 0 to 100 actually mean for a server I want to use?

Frequently asked questions

What is mcprobe?

A command line tool that scans MCP servers for security risks like hidden prompt injection, tool name collisions, and unsafe file access before you connect them to an AI agent.

What language is mcprobe written in?

Mainly Go. The stack also includes Go.

What license does mcprobe use?

Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

How hard is mcprobe to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is mcprobe for?

Mainly developer.

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