Can’t Debug Your MCP Server? Here’s What’s Actually Happening.

Описание: Debugging an MCP server isn’t as straightforward as hitting F5.

When you own the process, debugging is easy: set breakpoints, press run, and step through your code.

But what happens when Visual Studio Code, the MCP Inspector, or another client starts your server for you? How do you debug a process you didn’t launch?

In this video, we break down exactly how MCP servers run and how to debug them in both transport modes.

We cover:
The difference between stdio and HTTP transport
Why debugging works differently in each mode
How to attach the debugger to an existing MCP process
Using dotnet with the compiled DLL to make debugging easier
Running your MCP server in HTTP mode for simpler breakpoint workflows

By the end, you’ll understand how MCP servers are actually executed and how to confidently debug tool invocations, startup issues, and transport problems.

If you’re building MCP servers in C# (or .NET in general), this will save you hours of frustration.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:05 How stdio Actually Works
05:21 mcp.json, PDBs, and Running the DLL
12:54 First Tool Invocation (Will It Break?)
13:29 Attaching the Debugger Successfully
14:58 Debugging with MCP Inspector
18:05 Switching to HTTP Transport
20:05 Running the Server in HTTP Mode
24:22 Debugging HTTP the Easy Way
25:03 Outro

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