Unable to run the mcp using given commands in the Readme

[Shreeyak]

I'm trying to run the MCP server on my system and in VS Code.

Mostly, the command hangs and does not proceed further. I've verified redis-server is running on default port on localhost and I can ping it.
Expected behaviour is that the terminal prints "connected to redis". This is what I see when I run the pip installed version. It hangs after starting:

(.venv) shrek@macpro:tmp_redis_mcp ❯ redis-mcp-server
Starting the Redis MCP Server

Same behaviour when I try the main github branch:

(.venv) shrek@macpro:tmp-redis ❯ uvx --from git+https://github.com/redis/mcp-redis.git redis-mcp-server --url redis://localhost:6379/0
Installed 36 packages in 36ms
Starting the Redis MCP Server

^C^C
Aborted!

Trying older git releases give other errors:

(.venv) shrek@macpro:koboldx-backend ❯ uvx --from git+https://github.com/redis/mcp-redis.git@0.1.0 red
is-mcp-server --url redis://localhost:6379/0
      Built redis-mcp-server @ git+https://github.com/redis/mcp-redis.git@9abea4327aaf9ffb8358769709925e3a
Installed 36 packages in 32ms
Package `redis-mcp-server` does not provide any executables.

(.venv) shrek@macpro:koboldx-backend ❯ uvx --from git+https://github.com/redis/mcp-redis.git@0.2.0 redis-mcp-server --url redis://localhost:6379/0
      Built redis-mcp-server @ git+https://github.com/redis/mcp-redis.git@dc54488ca41d595ca09e5a56f071a8fb
Installed 36 packages in 36ms
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/shrek/.cache/uv/archive-v0/8zNBP2xIWFeTPZd6VfDHg/bin/redis-mcp-server", line 6, in <module>
    from src.main import cli

  ...

  File "/Users/shrek/.cache/uv/archive-v0/8zNBP2xIWFeTPZd6VfDHg/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pydantic/json_schema.py", line 2407, in model_json_schema
    cls.__pydantic_core_schema__.rebuild()
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/Users/shrek/.cache/uv/archive-v0/8zNBP2xIWFeTPZd6VfDHg/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pydantic/_internal/_mock_val_ser.py", line 67, in rebuild
    raise PydanticUserError(self._error_message, code=self._code)
pydantic.errors.PydanticUserError: `json_setArguments` is not fully defined; you should define `JsonType`, then call `json_setArguments.model_rebuild()`.

For further information visit https://errors.pydantic.dev/2.11/u/class-not-fully-defined

Also stuck when I try to clone the repo and run with uv:

shrek@macpro:mcp-redis ❯ uv sync
Resolved 96 packages in 13ms
Installed 16 packages in 30ms
 + authlib==1.6.1
 + black==25.1.0
 + docutils==0.22
 + dotenv==0.9.9
 + httpx-sse==0.4.0
 + mypy==1.17.0
 + mypy-extensions==1.1.0
 + psutil==6.1.1
 + pydantic==2.9.2
 + pytest==8.4.1
 + pytest-mock==3.14.1
 + python-multipart==0.0.20
 + redis==6.0.0
 + ruamel-yaml-clib==0.2.12
 + ruff==0.12.5
 + sniffio==1.3.1

shrek@macpro:mcp-redis ❯ uv run redis-mcp-server --url redis://localhost:6379/0
Starting the Redis MCP Server

Running on VS Code gives the following output and then freezes the application window:

2025-09-01 17:44:01.209 [info] Starting server from LocalProcess extension host
2025-09-01 17:44:01.219 [info] Connection state: Starting
2025-09-01 17:44:01.219 [info] Connection state: Running
2025-09-01 17:44:04.427 [warning] [server stderr] Starting the Redis MCP Server
2025-09-01 17:44:04.442 [warning] [server stderr] [09/01/25 17:44:04] INFO     Processing request of type            server.py:624
2025-09-01 17:44:04.442 [warning] [server stderr]                              ListToolsRequest
2025-09-01 17:44:04.449 [warning] [server stderr]                     INFO     Processing request of type            server.py:624
2025-09-01 17:44:04.449 [warning] [server stderr]                              ListPromptsRequest
2025-09-01 17:44:04.449 [info] Discovered 44 tools

System: macbook (m1, arm)

[tishun]

Hey @Shreeyak ,

apologies, I think the README.MD needs to be modified to clear out the confusion.

Since the MCP server is using stdio for communication you need to run it from the agent itself, if you run it in the shell then you would have no way to communicate to it. This example was put there more for illustrative purposes, but in a real life scenario the agent would always start the MCP server itself.

When you started the tool in VS Code it was loaded and 44 tools were discovered, so it seems to be working.

What would you want to do with it?
Have you tried asking in the prompt something like "Using the MCP tool get a list of all the keys in my Redis instance"?

[Shreeyak]

Hi! Thanks for the clarification. It's been lovely if you could add some instructions to see that the mcp is running properly after we launch it in terminal.

Yes, I tried telling copilot to use the mcp to check some keys in my redis db. But it causes my vscode to freeze up and I get the system to prompt to close the window. Happened consistently.

And the fact that the output window for redis mcp inside vscode mentioned "stdout stderr" made me think there might be an error, despite no error messages being printed.

Perhaps I can add some screenshots to clarify

[Shreeyak]

Okay, my problem got fixed. I noticed that I had set the type to sse instead of stdio. Might have been during my debugging. Secondly, I changed the name of the mcp server to remove whitespaces. VS Code documentation recommends not keeping white spaces in the name. I was not able to tag the mcp using # because it had a whitespace, now I can reliably trigger the prompt to use redis mcp tools!

I'll try to create a pr with this change to readme.