👁️ Argus

Datadog for MCPs — See, replay, test, and understand every MCP tool call.

What It Does

Argus is a standalone monitoring dashboard for MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers. It records:

• ✅ Tool calls with full parameters
• ⏱️ Latency measurements
• ❌ Errors and stack traces
• 📊 Usage analytics
• 🔄 Sessions/Runs for organized debugging
• 🔐 Automatic redaction of sensitive data

Then lets you:

• 🔄 Replay tool calls without involving the LLM
• 📋 Compare original vs replayed results (diff view)
• 🔍 Debug issues visually with timeline UI
• 📡 Real-time updates via SSE

Installation

npm install -g @argusai/cli

Quick Start

# 1. Start the dashboard (opens browser automatically)
argus dashboard --open

# 2. In another terminal, wrap any MCP server
argus wrap --api http://localhost:3000 -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem /tmp

That's it! Make tool calls and watch them appear in real-time.

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Argus Dashboard                              │
│                  http://localhost:3000                          │
└──────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┘
                           │ reads from
                           ▼
                   ┌───────────────┐
                   │    SQLite     │
                   └───────────────┘
                           ▲
         ┌─────────────────┼─────────────────┐
         │                 │                 │
    ┌────┴────┐       ┌────┴────┐       ┌────┴────┐
    │ GitHub  │       │ Figma   │       │ Custom  │
    │ (wrap)  │       │ (wrap)  │       │ (wrap)  │
    └─────────┘       └─────────┘       └─────────┘

CLI Commands

argus dashboard

Start the monitoring dashboard:

argus dashboard                    # Default port 3000
argus dashboard --open             # Open browser automatically
argus dashboard --port 4000        # Custom port
argus dashboard --db ./custom.db   # Custom database

| Flag | Description | Default | | ------------ | -------------------------- | ----------------- | | -p, --port | Dashboard port | 3000 | | -o, --open | Open browser automatically | false | | -d, --db | Database path | ~/.argus/argus.db |

argus wrap

Wrap an MCP server to record all tool calls:

# Basic usage
argus wrap -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem /tmp

# With real-time dashboard updates (recommended)
argus wrap --api http://localhost:3000 -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-github

# Custom server name (shows in dashboard)
argus wrap --name "GitHub" --api http://localhost:3000 -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-github

| Flag | Description | Default | | -------------------- | ----------------------------------- | ----------------- | | -a, --api | Dashboard URL for real-time updates | - | | -n, --name | Server display name | command | | -d, --db | Database path | ~/.argus/argus.db | | -t, --idle-timeout | Seconds before new run | 60 | | --redact | Additional keys to redact | - | | --no-redact | Disable redaction | - |

argus setup

Generate configuration files:

argus setup --init     # Create argus.config.json
argus setup --claude   # Generate Claude Desktop config

argus stats

View recording statistics:

argus stats              # All stats
argus stats --run <id>   # Stats for specific run

argus diagnose

Print diagnostic information for troubleshooting.

Using with Claude Desktop

1. Generate the config:

   argus setup --claude

2. Copy the output to your claude_desktop_config.json

3. Start the dashboard:

   argus dashboard --open

4. Restart Claude Desktop

Now all MCP tool calls from Claude will be recorded in Argus!

Configuration File

Create argus.config.json for advanced setups:

{
	"database": "~/.argus/argus.db",
	"port": 3000,
	"idleTimeout": 60,
	"redaction": {
		"enabled": true,
		"keys": ["token", "secret", "password", "api_key"]
	},
	"servers": {
		"github": {
			"name": "GitHub",
			"command": "npx",
			"args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"],
			"env": {"GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "${GITHUB_TOKEN}"}
		}
	}
}

Features

Real-time Updates

Dashboard updates instantly via Server-Sent Events when using --api flag.

Sessions/Runs

Tool calls are grouped into runs:

• New run on proxy connect
• New run after idle timeout (default: 60s)

Automatic Redaction

Sensitive data is automatically redacted:

• token, secret, password, authorization
• cookie, api_key, private_key, credential

Replay with Diff

Replay any tool call and compare original vs replayed results.

Troubleshooting

Claude Desktop Shows "Server disconnected"

1. Test the wrap command manually:

   argus wrap -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem /tmp

2. Check Claude Desktop logs:

   • macOS: ~/Library/Logs/Claude/
   • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\logs\

Dashboard Not Showing Updates

• Ensure dashboard is running: argus dashboard
• Use --api http://localhost:3000 with wrap command
• Both must use the same database path

Development

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/harshabikkavilli/argus.git
cd argus

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build everything
npm run build

# Run dashboard
npm run start dashboard

# Development (UI hot reload)
npm run dev:ui

License

MIT