mcp-sandbox

A free, open MCP server for developers and GenAI evaluations.

Every tool returns a stable, improbable canary token — something a model would never volunteer on its own. If the token shows up in a response, the call really reached this Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. If it doesn't, the tool was never invoked. That makes it a clean fixture for learning MCP, wiring up clients, and asserting on tool calls in CI and evals.

🌐 Live server: https://mcp.heptafox.com/mcp  ·  📖 Guide: mcp.heptafox.com

What is mcp-sandbox?

A public MCP server of deterministic test fixtures. Each tool returns a fixed canary string instead of real data, so you can prove a response originated from the server rather than the model's training or context.

Related MCP server: DevHelm MCP Server

Why use it?

When you're building or testing an agent, you usually don't want to point it at a production MCP server. You want a deterministic endpoint that always returns a known value. mcp-sandbox is that endpoint:

• 🎓 Learn MCP — connect a real server in minutes, no API keys or data setup.

• 🔌 Test clients — confirm your client actually calls tools and relays output.

• ✅ Verify integrations — prove the MCP layer works end to end.

• 🚦 Smoke tests — a one-call health check for CI/CD pipelines.

• 🧪 Automated evals — assert on a stable token, not on fuzzy model prose.

Who is it for?

Developers learning MCP · AI application & agent-framework developers · QA engineers · GenAI evaluation frameworks · CI/CD integration testing.

Supported MCP clients

Works with any MCP-compatible client over streamable HTTP, including:

Claude Desktop · Claude Code · Cursor · Google ADK · LangChain · CrewAI · OpenAI Agents SDK · MCP Inspector

Features

• ✨ Stable canary tokens — deterministic output you can assert on exactly.

• 🌐 Streamable HTTP transport — the modern MCP transport, endpoint /mcp.

• 🔑 Bearer-token auth check — a tool to verify auth reached the server.

• 🪶 Zero setup — no API keys, no accounts, no data.

• 🆓 Free & open source — Apache-2.0.

Learning progression

The tools are ordered so you can climb from "is it connected?" to "did auth arrive?" one concept at a time:

Tools

identity — connectivity check

No params. Returns a fixed ID string. Show it verbatim to confirm the server answered.

MCP-SANDBOX canary 7Q9X-ZK42-VORTEX-PARSNIP

echo — parameter passing

Params: message: str, repeat: int = 1. Sends your text through the server and returns it inside a fixed wrapper, repeated repeat times.

MCP-SANDBOX echo 4F7T-ECHO-START >>> your text <<< 4F7T-ECHO-END

auth_check — authentication

No params (reads the Authorization header). Verifies the server saw your Bearer token.

MCP-SANDBOX auth OK 9B3K-AUTHED-MARIGOLD      # valid token
MCP-SANDBOX auth FAIL 9B3K-NOAUTH-CINDER      # missing/invalid token

Authentication

auth_check is gated by a public development Bearer token:

Authorization: Bearer mcp-sandbox-dev-C7H2-KPMERCHANT

This is a shared smoke-test token for integration testing — it is public and is NOT a production credential. It only gates auth_check.

Quick Start

Use the hosted server

Claude Code — one command:

claude mcp add --transport http mcp-sandbox https://mcp.heptafox.com/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer mcp-sandbox-dev-C7H2-KPMERCHANT"

Claude Desktop — config is stdio-only, so bridge through mcp-remote in claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-sandbox": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y", "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.heptafox.com/mcp",
        "--header", "Authorization: Bearer mcp-sandbox-dev-C7H2-KPMERCHANT"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Raw HTTP — call the endpoint directly:

curl -X POST https://mcp.heptafox.com/mcp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer mcp-sandbox-dev-C7H2-KPMERCHANT" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call",
       "params":{"name":"identity","arguments":{}}}'

Endpoint is /mcp — no trailing slash. /mcp/ 307-redirects to /mcp, and some clients drop the POST body across the redirect. Always use /mcp.

Run it locally

uv sync
uv run server.py        # guide at http://127.0.0.1:8000/ , MCP at /mcp

Inspect it with the MCP Inspector — point it at http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector

Examples

Ask any connected model to call a tool, then assert on the token it relays:

Prompt: Call the mcp-sandbox identity tool and show me what it returned.

Expected: MCP-SANDBOX canary 7Q9X-ZK42-VORTEX-PARSNIP

If the token appears, the call reached this server. If the model answers without it, the tool was never invoked.

QA & GenAI Evaluations

In evals, assert on the raw tool result (result.content[0].text), not on the model's natural-language summary — the token is stable, the wording isn't.

import asyncio
from fastmcp import Client

async def main():
    async with Client("https://mcp.heptafox.com/mcp") as c:
        result = await c.call_tool("identity", {})
        assert "7Q9X-ZK42-VORTEX-PARSNIP" in result.content[0].text

asyncio.run(main())

Roadmap

• More beginner-friendly tools (error simulation, streaming, structured output)

• OAuth and additional authentication examples

• Client integration examples (Cursor, Google ADK, LangChain, CrewAI, OpenAI Agents SDK)

• Ready-made evaluation scenarios and tutorials

Have an idea? Open an issue or discussion.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome — especially beginner-friendly tools, client examples, and docs. New tools are just @mcp.tool functions in server.py, each returning a unique canary string. See CONTRIBUTING.md to get started.

Deploy your own

The hosted instance runs on AWS Lightsail (Ubuntu) behind nginx + Let's Encrypt. To self-host: uv sync, run via deploy/mcp-sandbox.service (systemd), front with deploy/nginx.conf + certbot --nginx -d <domain>, and open ports 80/443 only — the app binds to localhost and nginx proxies /mcp in. Step-by-step below.

1. Instance + DNS — create an Ubuntu Lightsail instance, point your domain's A record at its static IP, and open ports 80 + 443 in the Lightsail firewall. Leave 8000 closed; the app listens on localhost only.

2. App

   curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
   git clone <repo> ~/mcp-sandbox && cd ~/mcp-sandbox && uv sync

3. systemd — copy deploy/mcp-sandbox.service to /etc/systemd/system/, then:

   sudo systemctl daemon-reload
   sudo systemctl enable --now mcp-sandbox

4. nginx + TLS

   sudo apt install -y nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx
   # deploy/nginx.conf is set for mcp.heptafox.com; copy to /etc/nginx/sites-available/,
   # symlink into sites-enabled/, then:
   sudo certbot --nginx -d mcp.heptafox.com
   sudo systemctl reload nginx

Verify: systemctl status mcp-sandbox and curl -i https://<domain>/mcp.

License

Apache License 2.0. By contributing you agree your contributions are licensed under Apache-2.0.