mcp-cli

name	mcp-cli
description	Interface for MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers via CLI. Use when you need to interact with external tools, APIs, or data sources through MCP servers, list available MCP servers/tools, or call MCP tools from command line.

MCP-CLI

Access MCP servers through the command line. MCP enables interaction with external systems like GitHub, filesystems, databases, and APIs.

Commands

Command	Output
mcp-cli	List all servers and tool names
mcp-cli <server>	Show tools with parameters
mcp-cli <server>/<tool>	Get tool JSON schema
mcp-cli <server>/<tool> '<json>'	Call tool with arguments
mcp-cli grep "<glob>"	Search tools by name

Add -d to include descriptions (e.g., mcp-cli filesystem -d)

Workflow

1. Discover: mcp-cli → see available servers and tools
2. Explore: mcp-cli <server> → see tools with parameters
3. Inspect: mcp-cli <server>/<tool> → get full JSON input schema
4. Execute: mcp-cli <server>/<tool> '<json>' → run with arguments

Examples

# List all servers and tool names
mcp-cli

# See all tools with parameters
mcp-cli filesystem

# With descriptions (more verbose)
mcp-cli filesystem -d

# Get JSON schema for specific tool
mcp-cli filesystem/read_file

# Call the tool
mcp-cli filesystem/read_file '{"path": "./README.md"}'

# Search for tools
mcp-cli grep "*file*"

# JSON output for parsing
mcp-cli filesystem/read_file '{"path": "./README.md"}' --json

# Complex JSON with quotes (use heredoc or stdin)
mcp-cli server/tool <<EOF
{"content": "Text with 'quotes' inside"}
EOF

# Or pipe from a file/command
cat args.json | mcp-cli server/tool

# Find all TypeScript files and read the first one
mcp-cli filesystem/search_files '{"path": "src/", "pattern": "*.ts"}' --json | jq -r '.content[0].text' | head -1 | xargs -I {} sh -c 'mcp-cli filesystem/read_file "{\"path\": \"{}\"}"'

Options

Flag	Purpose
-j, --json	JSON output for scripting
-r, --raw	Raw text content
-d	Include descriptions

Exit Codes

• 0: Success
• 1: Client error (bad args, missing config)
• 2: Server error (tool failed)
• 3: Network error