| name | using-the-mcp-server |
| description | Use when calling LLM APIs through the liter-llm MCP server's 22 tools, and to decide when MCP beats the CLI or SDK. Covers the tool surface, the auto-installing launcher, and authentication. |
Using the MCP Server
The liter-llm MCP server exposes 22 tools that mirror the proxy's REST
endpoints, so an MCP-compatible client (Claude Code, Claude Desktop) can call
143 LLM providers as tools with no glue code.
How it runs in this plugin
The plugin auto-registers the server. Its command is the bundled launcher
scripts/mcp-launch.sh, which execs liter-llm mcp --transport stdio. On first
run the launcher resolves a liter-llm binary: it reuses one on PATH, then
tries npx/uvx, then Homebrew, then downloads a checksum-verified prebuilt
from the tool's latest GitHub release. Override with
LITER_LLM_LAUNCHER=auto|npx|uvx|brew|download.
To run it manually:
liter-llm mcp --transport stdio
liter-llm mcp --transport http --port 3001
The 22 tools
Modality tools: chat, embed, generate_image, speech, transcribe,
moderate, rerank, search, ocr.
Model listing: list_models.
File operations: create_file, list_files, retrieve_file, delete_file,
file_content.
Batch operations: create_batch, list_batches, retrieve_batch,
cancel_batch.
Responses API: create_response, retrieve_response, cancel_response.
Authentication
stdio has no per-request auth headers, so the server binds auth once at startup
via [mcp] config: set mcp.stdio_key_id to bind a specific virtual key, or
mcp.stdio_trust_local = true for fully trusted local environments. Provider
keys still come from env vars.
When to prefer MCP over the CLI or SDK
- Prefer MCP inside an agent session: the agent invokes tools directly, with
no code to write or process to manage.
- Prefer the SDK when building application software in a specific language.
- Prefer the proxy when many apps or teams need a shared OpenAI-compatible
endpoint with keys, budgets, and rate limits.
