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