Catch MCP servers that change after you approved them
An MCP server can change what its tools do after you approved it. Your agent will call the new one and never notice. mcpgawk records a baseline of every MCP server your agents use, checks behaviour in a sandbox, and sits in the path: once a tool's description or power changes, the call is refused until you decide. The agent cannot approve its own way past it. Everything runs on your machine. Nothing is uploaded. Free CLI, VS Code extension and MCP server. The gateway tier has a 7-day trial.
I built mcpgawk because approving an MCP server is a one-time yes to something that keeps changing. On my own machine, one approved server changed six times in six releases and went from 85 tools to 103. My agent would have called every new one without a second look.
mcpgawk is a free, local checkpoint between your coding agent and the MCP servers it calls.
Today you can:
• See every MCP server your agents can reach, across Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and more
• Approve a server and record exactly what its tools said
• Have a call refused once a tool rewrites its description or gains power you never approved, until you decide
• See what changed (description, inputs or safety flags), old and new side by side
• Rely on your agent not approving it for you: approval is refused inside an agent session
One thing I care about: it all runs on your machine. No account, nothing uploaded.
The CLI and VS Code extension are free; the team gateway is £29/month with a 7-day trial.
If you run more than a couple of MCP servers: how do you find out today when one of them changes?
I'll be here all day answering questions.
About mcpgawk on Product Hunt
“Catch MCP servers that change after you approved them”
mcpgawk launched on Product Hunt on October 6th, 2026 and earned 77 upvotes and 3 comments, placing #24 on the daily leaderboard. An MCP server can change what its tools do after you approved it. Your agent will call the new one and never notice. mcpgawk records a baseline of every MCP server your agents use, checks behaviour in a sandbox, and sits in the path: once a tool's description or power changes, the call is refused until you decide. The agent cannot approve its own way past it. Everything runs on your machine. Nothing is uploaded. Free CLI, VS Code extension and MCP server. The gateway tier has a 7-day trial.
On the analytics side, mcpgawk competes within Developer Tools, GitHub and Security — topics that collectively have 565.9k followers on Product Hunt. The dashboard above tracks how mcpgawk performed against the three products that launched closest to it on the same day.
Who hunted mcpgawk?
mcpgawk was hunted by Neelagiri Chettiyar. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
For a complete overview of mcpgawk including community comment highlights and product details, visit the product overview.
Neelagiri Chettiyar
Hey Product Hunt 👋
I built mcpgawk because approving an MCP server is a one-time yes to something that keeps changing. On my own machine, one approved server changed six times in six releases and went from 85 tools to 103. My agent would have called every new one without a second look.
mcpgawk is a free, local checkpoint between your coding agent and the MCP servers it calls.
Today you can:
• See every MCP server your agents can reach, across Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and more
• Approve a server and record exactly what its tools said
• Have a call refused once a tool rewrites its description or gains power you never approved, until you decide
• See what changed (description, inputs or safety flags), old and new side by side
• Rely on your agent not approving it for you: approval is refused inside an agent session
One thing I care about: it all runs on your machine. No account, nothing uploaded.
The CLI and VS Code extension are free; the team gateway is £29/month with a 7-day trial.
If you run more than a couple of MCP servers: how do you find out today when one of them changes?
I'll be here all day answering questions.