Mcp-Cli

# 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