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Operations

This section covers runtime operations: starting/stopping servers, invoking tools, and monitoring the system.

Start the composer​

mcp-compose serve --config mcp_compose.toml

Server management​

Server Lifecycle​

CLI​

Start a server:

mcp-compose start-server filesystem

Stop a server:

mcp-compose stop-server filesystem

Restart a server:

mcp-compose restart-server filesystem

User Interface (UI)​

The Web UI provides a visual dashboard for managing server lifecycles. From the Servers page, you can view the status of all configured servers at a glance, start or stop individual servers with a single click, and trigger restarts when needed. The UI displays real-time status updates, showing when servers transition between states (Starting, Running, Stopped, Crashed). Server logs are also accessible directly from the UI, making it easy to diagnose startup failures or runtime errors without switching to the terminal.

REST API​

POST /api/v1/servers/{server_id}/start
POST /api/v1/servers/{server_id}/stop
POST /api/v1/servers/{server_id}/restart

Example:

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/v1/servers/filesystem/start

Tool invocation​

CLI​

mcp-compose invoke-tool calculator:add '{"a": 5, "b": 3}'

REST API​

POST /api/v1/tools/{tool_name}/invoke

Example:

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/v1/tools/calculator:add/invoke \
	-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
	-d '{"a": 5, "b": 3}'

Monitoring​

Health and status​

GET /api/v1/health
GET /api/v1/status
GET /api/v1/status/composition

Metrics​

GET /api/v1/status/metrics

WebSockets​

WS /ws/logs
WS /ws/metrics

The Web UI exposes the same views with live updates for logs, metrics, and server status.

Troubleshooting​

  • Verify the configuration file loads without errors.
  • Check server logs for startup failures.
  • Use the Tools page to confirm tool discovery.
  • Use the health endpoint for readiness checks.