Summary
The client stays connected while the server restarts, and requests are buffered in the gap.
That is the difference from restarting by hand: no reconnecting the client, no lost messages, no re-running the conversation to get back where you were. One thing to expect — code changes apply on their own, but a schema change still needs the server toggled off and on in Claude Desktop's settings.
What it is
A hot-reload monitor for MCP servers — nodemon's idea applied to the Model Context Protocol. It runs as a transparent proxy between your client and your server and restarts the server on file changes.
What you get
- Wrap any MCP server command with mcpmon — Node, Python, Deno, anything
- Your client stays connected across restarts; requests are buffered so nothing is lost
- Mcpmon setup rewrites an existing server config for hot reload, with --all, --list and --restore
- Your original config backed up first, and the command is safe to run more than once
- Zero configuration by default; MCPMON_WATCH adds files, MCPMON_DELAY changes the restart delay, MCPMON_VERBOSE shows what it sees
- Importable as a library if you want to build your own monitoring
Requirements
Node.js 16 or higher. npm install -g mcpmon, or run it without installing via npx mcpmon node server.js. Version 0.3.0.
Setup effort
One command — npm install -g mcpmon