diff --git a/tests/e2e_mcp_test.sh b/tests/e2e_mcp_test.sh
index 6c95743..678affc 100755
--- a/tests/e2e_mcp_test.sh
+++ b/tests/e2e_mcp_test.sh
@@ -13,9 +13,8 @@ MCP_SERVER_URL="http://${MCP_SERVER_HOST}:${MCP_SERVER_PORT}"
 # --- Cleanup Function ---
 cleanup() {
     echo "--- Cleaning up ---"
-    if [ -n "$mcp_server_pid" ]; then
-        kill "$mcp_server_pid" || true
-    fi
+    [ -n "${mcp_proxy_pid:-}" ] && kill "$mcp_proxy_pid" || true
+    [ -n "${mcp_server_pid:-}" ] && kill "$mcp_server_pid" || true
     pkill -f kom_mcp || true
     sleep 1 # Give the OS time to release the port
     netstat -tuln | grep ":${MCP_SERVER_PORT}" || true # Check if port is still in use
@@ -29,15 +28,28 @@ echo "--- Setting up test environment ---"
 echo ">> Initializing test database..."
 "${PROJECT_ROOT_DIR}/db/scripts/create-test-db.sh" "$TEST_DB_NAME"
 
+# Optional environment bootstrap (developer machine)
+if [ -f "$HOME/dev/main/src/env.sh" ]; then
+  # shellcheck source=/dev/null
+  . "$HOME/dev/main/src/env.sh"
+fi
+
 echo ">> Harvesting embeddings..."
 export DB_URL="dbname=${TEST_DB_NAME} user=kompanion host=/var/run/postgresql" EMBED_NAMESPACE="dev_knowledge"
 python3 "${PROJECT_ROOT_DIR}/tools/ingest_dir.py" "${PROJECT_ROOT_DIR}/tests/test_data" "dev_knowledge"
 
-echo ">> Starting MCP server..."
+echo ">> Starting MCP server (preferring stdio + mcp-proxy if available)..."
 sleep 2
-timeout 10 $MCP_SERVER_EXECUTABLE --backend sse --address "${MCP_SERVER_HOST}:${MCP_SERVER_PORT}" < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 &
-mcp_server_pid=$!
-mcp_server_pid=$!
+if command -v mcp-proxy >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+  setsid $MCP_SERVER_EXECUTABLE --backend stdio < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 &
+  mcp_server_pid=$!
+  sleep 1
+  setsid mcp-proxy --target stdio://127.0.0.1 --listen "${MCP_SERVER_HOST}:${MCP_SERVER_PORT}" < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 &
+  mcp_proxy_pid=$!
+else
+  timeout 10 $MCP_SERVER_EXECUTABLE --backend sse --address "${MCP_SERVER_HOST}:${MCP_SERVER_PORT}" < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 &
+  mcp_server_pid=$!
+fi
 
 sleep 5
 ps -ef | grep kom_mcp