First success in five minutes

On this page

Run the gateway with its simulated light, then drive it from MCP Inspector, the official MCP developer tool. No model, hardware, account or API key is involved.

You need Git, uv and Node.js 22 or later.

MCP Inspector connects to the local gateway, lists six tools, finds the simulated light and sets it blue. The reply says executed, simulated true, physical_verified false.

1. Start the gateway

git clone https://github.com/adidshaft/grok-gadgets-gateway.git
cd grok-gadgets-gateway
uv sync --locked
uv run grok-gadgets-gateway init
uv run grok-gadgets-gateway serve --simulator

Leave it running. It serves MCP on http://127.0.0.1:8766/mcp and accepts only the bearer token that init wrote to ~/.config/grok-gadgets/mcp-token.

2. Open MCP Inspector

In a second terminal:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector@2.9.0 --web --transport http \
  --server-url http://127.0.0.1:8766/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $(cat ~/.config/grok-gadgets/mcp-token)"

Open the printed http://127.0.0.1:6274?... link. Turn on the switch next to 127.0.0.1:8766. It shows Connected.

3. Call the tools

Open Tools. You see six tools, from gadgets_list_devices to gadgets_diagnostics.
Select gadgets_list_devices and press Execute Tool. The simulated light sim-c124 ("Desk light") is listed with "simulated": true.
Select gadgets_command, turn on Edit as JSON, and enter:
```
{"device_id": "sim-c124", "capability": "rgb.set", "arguments": {"r": 0, "g": 120, "b": 255, "on": true}}
```
Press Execute Tool. The reply has "status": "executed", "simulated": true and "physical_verified": false.
Optional: gadgets_get_state with {"device_id": "sim-c124"} shows the new colour.

Without a browser

The same Inspector has a command-line mode:

TOKEN="$(cat ~/.config/grok-gadgets/mcp-token)"
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector@2.9.0 --cli http://127.0.0.1:8766/mcp --transport http \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" --method tools/call --tool-name gadgets_command \
  --tool-args-json '{"device_id":"sim-c124","capability":"rgb.set","arguments":{"r":0,"g":120,"b":255,"on":true}}'

What this proves

The gateway, the simulator and the six MCP tools work in a standard MCP client on your computer. It does not prove a Grok Bot connection or any physical effect.

CI runs this path from a clean checkout on every push and every night: scripts/check_first_success.py reads the commands from the README quick start, then calls the tools with the Inspector command line.

If something fails

Symptom	Next step
`401` or Inspector cannot connect	The header must be `Authorization: Bearer <token>` with the exact file contents.
Port 8766 or 8765 in use	Stop the other process, or pass `--port` and `--device-port` to `serve` and change the URL.
No `sim-c124`	Start `serve` with `--simulator`.
`npx` not found	Install Node.js 22 or later.