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summary How mcporter keeps stateful MCP servers warm and exposes them through its bridge.
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Configuring keep-alive servers, the daemon, serve mode, or Chrome DevTools

Keep-alive daemon

MCPorter can keep stateful stdio servers alive across separate CLI invocations. A per-login daemon owns those transports, while the ordinary mcporter list and mcporter call commands route eligible servers through its local socket.

Lifecycle selection

Chrome DevTools, Mobile MCP, Playwright MCP, and CloudBase MCP definitions default to keep-alive when MCPorter recognizes their configured name or stdio command. Other servers remain ephemeral unless their config opts in:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "browser": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "chrome-devtools-mcp@latest", "--autoConnect"],
      "lifecycle": "keep-alive",
    },
    "interactive": {
      "url": "https://example.com/mcp",
      "lifecycle": "ephemeral",
    },
  },
}

MCPORTER_KEEPALIVE=name opts named servers in. MCPORTER_DISABLE_KEEPALIVE=name opts them out; both variables accept comma-separated names or *. Explicit config remains the clearest choice for project-owned definitions.

Ad-hoc targets passed with --stdio, --http-url, or a URL selector are per-process. Persist the definition into config before expecting it to participate in the shared daemon.

Daemon commands

mcporter daemon status
mcporter daemon start
mcporter daemon restart
mcporter daemon stop

Eligible servers start the daemon automatically when a list or call needs them. Use explicit commands to inspect, pre-warm, restart after configuration changes, or stop every managed transport.

Daemon calls are non-interactive. If a server requests elicitation, the call is declined with a hint to use an ephemeral terminal call instead. See protocols and interactive requests.

The local socket timeout is an idle liveness budget rather than a cap on the whole operation. A current daemon emits progress frames while work is in flight, allowing interactive OAuth to run to its own deadline without causing a daemon restart or a duplicate browser prompt. Mixed versions remain compatible: a current client falls back to the previous flat deadline with an older daemon, while a current daemon sends the single-response format expected by older clients unless the caller explicitly opts into progress frames.

Expose servers to another MCP client

mcporter serve turns the daemon's keep-alive servers back into an MCP server:

mcporter serve --stdio
mcporter serve --http 3000
mcporter serve --http 3000 --servers chrome-devtools,playwright

The stdio form is suitable for clients such as Claude Code and Codex. HTTP mode binds to 127.0.0.1 by default and serves an aggregate endpoint at /mcp, with namespaced tools such as chrome-devtools__list_pages. It also serves /mcp/<server> with that server's original tool names.

Chrome DevTools without repeated approval dialogs

chrome-devtools-mcp --autoConnect uses Chrome's remote-debugging handshake, which can display an “Allow remote debugging?” dialog for each session. When the OpenClaw Chrome extension relay is paired on the same host, MCPorter probes its loopback endpoint and rewrites --autoConnect to the relay's authenticated WebSocket endpoint.

The rewrite is best-effort. If the host-local relay secret is missing, the relay is unavailable or unpaired, or the endpoint is not loopback-only, MCPorter keeps the original arguments. Set MCPORTER_DISABLE_CHROME_DEVTOOLS_RELAY=1 to disable relay detection. Set MCPORTER_CHROME_DEVTOOLS_RELAY_URL only to another loopback HTTP endpoint.

MCPorter also applies its Chrome DevTools auto-connect compatibility patch when relevant. Set MCPORTER_DISABLE_CHROME_DEVTOOLS_COMPAT=1 to disable that separate behavior.

Logging and shutdown

Use mcporter daemon start --log or mcporter daemon restart --log to keep a daemon log. --log-file <path> chooses the destination, and --log-servers <csv> limits per-call traces. The logging guide covers environment and per-server controls.

The daemon closes managed transports on stop. A top-level daemonIdleTimeoutMs can shut down an inactive daemon, while a keep-alive lifecycle object can set an idle timeout for one server. See configuration for both forms.