Connect an MCP App

A Profile stores an MCP server URL and its credentials. Every tool call, resource read, and test replay is routed through the active profile — switching profiles re-routes everything instantly without touching your tests.

What is a Profile

Name

A human-readable label shown in the sidebar and test run reports.

Server URL

The MCP endpoint to connect to, e.g. http://localhost:9000 or https://mcp.example.com/mcp.

MCP Studio ships with a default Excalidraw profile so you can explore the UI immediately. Replace it or add more profiles for your own servers.

Open the Profile Manager

Click the Profile section in the left sidebar to expand it, then click the profile name or the pencil icon. The Profiles dialog opens with the active profile already in edit mode.

mcp studio

Profile panel in the sidebar — click to open the profile manager.

Create or Edit a Profile

1

Enter a name

Give the profile a descriptive label — e.g. Local dev or Staging.
2
Set the server URL

Paste the full URL to your MCP endpoint. Local servers and remote HTTPS endpoints are both supported.
examples
```
http://localhost:9000
http://localhost:9000/mcp
https://mcp.example.com/mcp
```
3

Save and activate

Click Save to persist the profile, then click the profile row to activate it. The green dot in the sidebar confirms the connection is live.

mcp studio

Profile editor — name and URL fields.

Switch Profiles

Open the Profiles dialog from the sidebar and click any profile row to activate it. The active profile shows a green check badge. All subsequent tool calls and test replays immediately use that profile's URL.

mcp studio

Switching the active profile from the sidebar.

Tip — per-environment profiles

Keep separate profiles for Local dev, Staging, and Production. Switching profiles re-routes every test without any edits — useful for a quick smoke-test after a deploy.

Profiles and Tests

Tests are not bound to a profile at record time — they replay against whichever profile is currently active. This means:

Record once against your local dev server, then replay the same test on staging by switching profiles.
Update a profile's URL and every test picks up the change automatically.
You cannot delete the last profile — at least one must exist to keep tests runnable.

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