MCP-CLI

Name: mcp-cli
Rating: 78
Author: oneqmethod

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

Prerequisites

Install mcp-cli:

bash

bun install -g https://github.com/philschmid/mcp-cli

Configuration

Create mcp_servers.json in current directory or ~/.config/mcp/:

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "."]
    },
    "deepwiki": {
      "url": "https://mcp.deepwiki.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

•stdio servers: Use command + args
•HTTP servers: Use url

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

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

Examples

bash

# 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