localhost app

@getlocalhost/cli

Connects your coding agents to localhost mcp, the MCP server of localhost app, from a terminal:

npx @getlocalhost/cli mcp install

It adds a server named localhost to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor and Codex, whichever are on this computer, and installs the localhost-mcp skill where each agent reads skills. The server runs the localhost command that comes with the app, so the app must be installed: without it, this prints how to install it for your OS and changes nothing.

It writes what Settings → Agents in the app writes, and the app shows these agents as connected:

Agent	MCP server added to	Skill installed in
Claude Code	~/.claude.json, through claude mcp add-json --scope user when claude is installed	~/.claude/skills/localhost-mcp/
Claude Desktop (macOS, Windows)	claude_desktop_config.json in Claude's folder (~/Library/Application Support/Claude, %APPDATA%\Claude)	none: it has no skills folder
Cursor	~/.cursor/mcp.json	~/.cursor/skills/localhost-mcp/, unless Claude Code's or Codex's folder has it: Cursor reads those too
Codex	~/.codex/config.toml	~/.agents/skills/localhost-mcp/

• Only its own entries. Every other server and setting in the file stays as it was, comments and order included. A file it can't read is reported and left alone.
• A backup first, in the agent-backups folder of localhost's data folder, before it first changes a file.
• Running it again changes nothing.

Commands

npx @getlocalhost/cli mcp install     # add the server and the skill
npx @getlocalhost/cli mcp uninstall   # remove them, and nothing else
npx @getlocalhost/cli mcp status      # where each agent stands
npx @getlocalhost/cli mcp serve       # run the server, for an MCP client's configuration

Option
--client <agent>	claude-code, claude-desktop, cursor or codex; claude for both Claude apps. Repeat it, or separate with commas, for more than one. Without it: every agent found on this computer.
--read-only	For mcp install and mcp serve. The server runs localhost mcp --read-only, without the tools that add, edit or remove Projects and Services. Needs a localhost app that has it (0.4.0 or later). Installing again without it keeps a read-only server read-only.
--dry-run	Prints what would change, as a diff, and changes nothing.

Then start a new Claude Code session, quit and reopen Claude Desktop, check Cursor Settings → MCP, or restart Codex.

Any MCP client

mcp serve is the server itself, for any client that starts MCP servers over stdio:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "localhost": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@getlocalhost/cli", "mcp", "serve"] }
  }
}

It finds the app's localhost command as mcp install does and runs localhost mcp with the client's stdin and stdout, passing on Ctrl-C and other signals and exiting as the server does. mcp serve --read-only runs localhost mcp --read-only. It writes nothing to stdout itself, since that is the client's channel: without the app, or with an app whose command doesn't run, it says why on stderr and exits with 1. claude mcp add --scope user localhost -- npx -y @getlocalhost/cli mcp serve and codex mcp add localhost -- npx -y @getlocalhost/cli mcp serve add it from a terminal.

More in the MCP docs. Node 18 or later; no dependencies.

Development

cd packages/cli
npm test
node bin/getlocalhost.js mcp status

The JSON and TOML editors are the same as the core's (core/localhost-core/src/agents/), and their tests too: change both together. npm pack copies the skill from skills/localhost-mcp into the package.