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Playground: Interactive Development Environment

A testing playground to view tools in your MCP servers before connecting them to LLMs to see detailed response structures.

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What it does​

The Playground provides an interactive environment to:

  • Explore MCP server tools without running the full agent
  • Test tool parameters and see responses in real-time
  • Inspect response structures for debugging
  • Validate server connections before integration
  • Develop and debug custom MCP servers

How to access​

# Launch Web UI
dexto

Navigate to "Playground" in the sidebar.

Features​

1. Server Browser​

  • View all connected MCP servers
  • See available tools for each server
  • Inspect tool schemas and parameters

2. Tool Tester​

  • Select any tool from connected servers
  • Fill in parameters with a guided form
  • Execute tools directly
  • View formatted responses

3. Response Inspector​

  • See full JSON responses
  • Expand/collapse nested structures
  • Copy response data
  • View error messages and stack traces

4. Connection Validator​

  • Test server connectivity
  • Verify authentication
  • Check tool availability
  • Debug connection issues

Use Cases​

Developing MCP Servers​

Test your custom MCP server tools before integrating with agents:

# Start your MCP server
dexto --mode mcp

# In another terminal, test it in playground
dexto

Debugging Tool Issues​

When a tool isn't working as expected, use the playground to:

  1. Verify the tool exists
  2. Check parameter requirements
  3. Test with sample inputs
  4. Inspect error responses

Exploring New Servers​

Before adding a new MCP server to your agent, explore its capabilities in the playground to understand what tools it provides and how to use them.

Example Workflow​

  1. Add a server via Web UI or config
  2. Open Playground
  3. Select server from dropdown
  4. Choose a tool to test
  5. Fill parameters using the form
  6. Execute and view response
  7. Iterate until you understand the tool behavior

Learn More​