Getting started
The quickest way to get a feel for MCP Description (mcpdesc) is to open it in the
Live Editor and experiment — no install required. Once you’re comfortable with the format,
capture one of your own MCP servers with the mcpcontract CLI.
Experiment in the Live Editor
Section titled “Experiment in the Live Editor”Start visually: open the Live MCP Description Editor and edit a description right in your browser. Tweak tools, transports, and metadata to see how a description is shaped, with live validation as you type. The editor runs entirely in your browser; nothing you type is uploaded to our servers.
Run your first dump
Section titled “Run your first dump”When you’re ready to describe a real server, install the mcpcontract CLI and extract the
capabilities of a live MCP server — no project setup required:
# Install from npmnpm install -g @cisco_open/mcptoolkit-contract
# Extract capabilities from a live MCP server into an MCP Descriptionmcpcontract dump \ --transport streamable-http \ --url https://learn.microsoft.com/api/mcp \ --format yaml \ --output ms-learn.yamlYou now have ms-learn.yaml — an MCP Description document describing every tool the
server exposes. Open it back in the Live Editor to explore it visually, or
validate it, generate documentation, and compare it against other versions from the CLI.
For the full five-minute walkthrough — including validation, documentation, and
comparing versions to detect breaking changes — follow the canonical
101 Tutorial
in the mcptoolkit-contract repository.
Next steps
Section titled “Next steps”- 101 Tutorial — dump, validate, document, and compare a real server.
- What is MCP Description? — the format every tool reads and writes.