The MCP Inspector broke its own npx command for five hours. One extra bin did it.
By Lior AharonovFounder, 7IT Solutions ·
On Wednesday 7 October 2026 at 23:57 UTC, @modelcontextprotocol/inspector 2.10.0 shipped with two bins, mcpdo and mcp-inspector, and npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector stopped working. Version 2.10.1 followed at 05:22 UTC on Thursday 8 October with an inspector bin alias, and npm now marks 2.10.0 deprecated.
The npm rule is strict: with several bins, npx runs only the one named like the unscoped package. If none matches, it stops with an error. Picture every client config that starts your server with npx -y your-package failing on the same morning, while your own tests call the bin by name and stay green.
If users start your MCP server with npx, keep one bin named exactly like the unscoped package name before you add a second one. Then test the plain npx your-package command in CI, not only the bin by name.
Your install line is part of your API. I would test it like one, on every release.
Lior Aharonov · my takeSources
- npm registry: @modelcontextprotocol/inspector versions, bins and deprecation notice registry.npmjs.org
- MCP Inspector 2.10.1 package.json raw.githubusercontent.com
- npm docs: npm exec, how the command to run is chosen raw.githubusercontent.com
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