Why do I need ngrok for MCP development?

ChatGPT requires a secure HTTPS endpoint to communicate with your MCP server; ngrok provides a public HTTPS tunnel to your local development environment during the testing phase.

What is the 'Developer mode' in ChatGPT settings for?

Enabling Developer mode is a prerequisite for adding custom MCP connectors, which allows ChatGPT to interact with your private or local servers.

How do I troubleshoot a 'Connection refused' error?

Verify that your local server is running on the expected port (e.g., 8000) and that ngrok is successfully forwarding traffic to that exact port.

Can I deploy my MCP server to any cloud provider?

Yes, this skill includes configurations and Dockerfile templates suitable for Railway, Render, Fly.io, AWS, and other providers that support containerized applications.

How does the MCP Inspector help in the development process?

It allows you to list tools, call functions, and preview widget HTML rendering in a local environment without needing to connect to the ChatGPT interface first.

MCP Deployment & Testing for OpenAI

Name: MCP Deployment & Testing for OpenAI
Author: mberto10

bymberto10

Deployment & DevOps

Streamlines the deployment and validation of MCP servers for ChatGPT integration using ngrok, MCP Inspector, and production-ready patterns.

About

This skill provides a comprehensive toolkit and workflow for developers building Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers within the OpenAI Apps SDK ecosystem. It bridges the gap between local development and production by offering standardized guidance on exposing local servers via ngrok, validating schemas with the MCP Inspector, and configuring ChatGPT connectors. Whether you are troubleshooting connection issues, testing widget rendering, or deploying to platforms like Railway and Docker, this skill ensures your MCP integrations are robust, secure, and fully functional.

Key Features

Automated validation and debugging via the MCP Inspector tool
Step-by-step ChatGPT connector configuration and testing workflows
0 GitHub stars
Built-in health check and logging templates for Python and TypeScript
Production-ready deployment patterns for Railway, Docker, and Cloud Run
End-to-end local development setup using ngrok for HTTPS tunneling

Use Cases

Debugging tool schema errors and widget rendering issues using the MCP Inspector
Transitioning a prototype MCP server to a production-grade containerized environment
Exposing a local Python or TypeScript MCP server to ChatGPT for real-time testing

What are Skills?·How to Install

Install with 🐟 Skill.Fish

npx skillfish add mberto10/mberto-compound mcp-deployment-testing

For use in Claude.ai and ChatGPT

Download Skill

GitHub