Overview

Three companion features let you keep a growing list of MCP connections tidy and instantly accessible:

  • Connection Groups — organise connections into named, colour-coded groups with a dedicated card view
  • Copy Connection — duplicate any connection under a new name in one step
  • Starred Connections — star your most-used connections so they stay pinned at the top of the list

Connection Groups

Key Capabilities

🗂️ Named Groups

Create groups with a custom name and one of eight preset colours.

🎨 Colour-Coded Cards

Each group appears as a card in the Groups view, making it easy to visually scan at a glance.

✏️ Edit in Place

Rename a group or change its colour directly from the Groups view without leaving the page.

🖱️ Clickable Connection Chips

Every connection chip inside a group card is a button. Click it to set that connection as the active/default connection — the selected chip is visually highlighted.

🗑️ Safe Delete

Delete a group after confirming the dialog. Connections in the group are not deleted — their group assignment is simply cleared.

💾 Persisted State

Groups and the “Show Groups view” toggle are saved to UserPreferences automatically.

Creating a Group

  1. Navigate to the 🔌 Connections tab.
  2. Click the Groups toggle button in the header to open the Groups view.
  3. Click ➕ New group.
  4. Enter a group name (must be unique).
  5. Select a colour from the palette.
  6. Click Create.

The new group card appears immediately.

Assigning a Connection to a Group

  1. Open the Edit dialog for a connection (✏️ pencil icon).
  2. Select a group from the Group dropdown.
  3. Click Save.

The connection now appears as a chip on its group card.

Editing a Group

  1. Open the Groups view.
  2. Find the group card you want to change.
  3. Click the Edit group button on the card.
  4. Update the name and/or colour.
  5. Click Save.

Deleting a Group

  1. Open the Groups view.
  2. Click the Delete group button on the target group card.
  3. Confirm the deletion in the dialog.

warning: Deleting a group does not delete the connections inside it. Each connection’s group assignment is cleared and it will appear ungrouped in the main list.

Switching the Active Connection via a Group Card

In the Groups view, each connection chip is clickable:

  • Click a chip → that connection becomes the selected/default connection.
  • The chip for the currently-selected connection is highlighted with an accent border.

This lets you switch contexts quickly without leaving the Groups view.

Colour Palette Reference

Eight preset colours are available when creating or editing a group:

ColourHex
Sky#38bdf8
Emerald#10b981
Violet#a78bfa
Rose#f43f5e
Amber#f59e0b
Cyan#22d3ee
Pink#ec4899
Orange#f97316

Copy Connection

Overview

The Copy Connection feature duplicates an existing connection under a new name, inheriting all settings (endpoint, auth headers, group assignment, notes). Useful when you need near-identical connections that differ only by a name, endpoint variant, or environment.

Copying a Connection

  1. Find the connection you want to duplicate in the list.
  2. Click the Copy button (⧉ icon) on the connection row.
  3. Enter a new name for the copy (must be unique).
  4. Click Copy.

The new connection appears in the list with all settings copied from the source. You can then edit it to adjust any fields.

What Gets Copied

FieldCopied?
Endpoint URL✅ Yes
Authentication headers✅ Yes
Azure client credentials✅ Yes
Note / description✅ Yes
Group assignment✅ Yes
Parameter history❌ No (starts fresh)
Favorites❌ No (starts fresh)

Common Use Cases

Dev → Staging promotion

  Copy "My API - Dev"  →  Name: "My API - Staging"
Then edit the endpoint to point at the staging URL.

Token rotation testing

  Copy "Auth Service"  →  Name: "Auth Service (new key)"
Edit the Authorization header with the new token.

Starred Connections

Overview

Star any connection to pin it to the top of the connections list. Use the “Show starred only” toggle to filter the list down to just your starred connections.

Starring a Connection

Click the ⭐ star icon next to any connection in the list. The icon fills in to indicate the connection is starred. Click again to unstar.

Starred connections are automatically:

  • Sorted to the top of the list (before other sort order rules apply)
  • Included when the “Show starred only” filter is active

Filtering to Starred Connections Only

  1. Navigate to the 🔌 Connections tab.
  2. Click the ★ Starred toggle button in the header.

Only starred connections are shown. All other connections are hidden until you toggle the filter off.

Persisted Favourites

Your starred connections are saved in UserPreferences (FavoriteConnections list) and persist across sessions and page reloads.

Tips & Best Practices

🗂️ Group by Environment

Create groups named Dev, Staging, and Prod with distinct colours (e.g., emerald for Dev, amber for Staging, rose for Prod) to avoid accidentally using the wrong environment.

⭐ Star Your Daily Drivers

Star the 2–3 connections you use every day so they are always at the top — even with dozens of connections in the list.

📋 Use Copy for Environment Promotion

When a connection is ready to promote to a higher environment, Copy it and edit only what changes (endpoint, credentials). This preserves notes and group membership.

🎨 Consistent Colour Scheme

Decide on a colour convention across your team and document it in each group’s description via the Note field on connections (e.g., all Dev connections get a Note: “DEV – do not use in production”).

🔍 Combine Filters

The search filter and Starred filter work together — you can search within your starred connections for even faster access.

Troubleshooting

Group Name Already Exists

Problem: Cannot create or rename a group — name validation error shown.

Solution: Each group name must be unique (case-insensitive). Choose a different name or delete the conflicting group first.

Copy Name Already Exists

Problem: Copy dialog shows a name validation error.

Solution: The copied connection name must be unique. Change the proposed name and try again.

Star Icon Not Persisting

Problem: Starred connections lose their star after a page reload.

Solutions:

  1. Verify the application has write permission to the settings file (%APPDATA%\McpExplorer\settings.json on Windows, ~/.local/share/McpExplorer/settings.json on macOS/Linux).
  2. Check for file permission errors in the browser console.

Connection Not Appearing in Group Card

Problem: You assigned a group to a connection but it doesn’t appear on the group card in the Groups view.

Solutions:

  1. Ensure you saved the connection after selecting the group.
  2. Refresh the page to force a preferences reload.
  3. Verify the group name in the connection editor exactly matches the group.