What is Openstatus MCP Health Checker?
Openstatus MCP Health Checker is a free online tool that performs a true protocol-level health check on Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. Unlike basic HTTP monitors that only verify a 200 status code, this tool executes the exact JSON-RPC handshake sequence that real AI clients use when connecting. It runs the spec-defined initialize, ping, and tools/list calls directly from your browser — no installation or signup required.
Who it's for
- MCP server operators who need to verify their endpoint behaves correctly before deploying to production or sharing with users
- AI application developers building on MCP who want to debug integration issues without spinning up a full client environment
- Platform engineers maintaining MCP infrastructure who require deep visibility into protocol negotiation, session handling, and auth requirements
Key features
Full JSON-RPC handshake
The tool executes the complete three-step handshake every MCP client performs: initialize with protocol version 2025-06-18, a notifications/initialized fire-and-forget, then parallel ping and tools/list calls. This catches failures that a plain HTTP check would miss entirely.
Deep payload visibility
Every step in the handshake is inspectable — click any row in the results table to see the exact JSON-RPC request and response, including negotiated protocol version, server info, capabilities, and session ID. You get the same data an AI client would see.
Smart authentication handling
When a server returns a 401 with a WWW-Authenticate: Bearer header, the tool parses the RFC 9728 resource_metadata URL and surfaces the authorization server. This lets you grab a token in one click rather than hunting through documentation.
What stands out
"A 200 OK is useless if the JSON-RPC handshake fails."
Most monitoring tools stop at the HTTP status code, but an MCP server can return 200 and still be completely broken — the body might be HTML from a misconfigured proxy, the JSON-RPC id might not echo, or tools/list might come back empty. Openstatus MCP Health Checker acts exactly like a real AI client, verifying the protocol works end-to-end rather than just checking the transport layer.
Worth checking out if…
You run or develop against MCP servers and want a zero-install way to validate your endpoint's handshake, inspect JSON-RPC payloads, or debug authentication issues before your users encounter them.
