Best for
- AI coding agents that need lightweight MCP server integration.
- Developers who prefer terminal-based interactions.
- Users needing efficient, scriptable access to MCP tools.
M
64FMRS · C
mcp-cli is a feature-rich CLI tool, especially suited for AI agents and terminal users, providing script-friendly access to MCP servers.
mcp-cli is a lightweight, Bun-based CLI for interacting with Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. It supports servers over stdio and HTTP transports, offering tool discovery, schema viewing, invocation, and is optimized for AI coding agents.
Tools
info
Show server information, tools, and schemas.
grep
Search tools by glob pattern.
call
Call a tool on a server, with inline JSON or from stdin.
Setup
- Install via
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/philschmid/mcp-cli/main/install.sh | bashorbun install -g https://github.com/philschmid/mcp-cli. 2. Create config filemcp_servers.json(see above). 3. Usemcp-clicommands.
claude_desktop_config.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"filesystem": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
"."
]
},
"deepwiki": {
"url": "https://mcp.deepwiki.com/mcp"
}
}
}
Fit and risk
Not for
- Users requiring a graphical interface.
- Scenarios not involving the MCP protocol.
- Applications needing persistent connections or heavy session management (CLI is designed for one-off requests).
Required permissions
- Read and write MCP server configuration as specified in config file.
- Spawn subprocesses via stdio (e.g., npx).
- Establish network connections to remote MCP servers if configured.
- Create temporary Unix sockets for connection pooling (daemon mode enabled by default).
Risks and side effects
- Sensitive information (e.g., API keys) in config may be stored in plaintext.
- MCP servers launched may execute arbitrary commands, especially from untrusted sources.
- Connection keep-alive may hold resources if not idle-timeout.
- Supply chain risks when using npm/npx packages as server commands.
Troubleshooting
- Check config file path (`mcp_servers.json` or `~/.config/mcp/`).
- Set `MCP_DEBUG=1` for debug output.
- Set `MCP_NO_DAEMON=1` to disable connection caching to resolve issues.
- Ensure server command is available (e.g., npx installed).
- Verify environment variable substitution (`${VAR}`) meets `MCP_STRICT_ENV`.
- Refer to error messages for recovery suggestions.
Use cases
Quickly list and call MCP tools from the command line.
Provide command-line access to MCP servers for AI coding agents (e.g., Gemini CLI, Claude Code).
Chain MCP tools with shell utilities like jq in scripts.
Supported clients
Claude DesktopPartial support
Gemini CLIPartial support
OpenCodePartial support
Claude CodePartial support