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mcp-cli

mcp-cli

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About mcp-cli

mcp-cli is a command-line skill for discovering and calling tools on configured MCP servers. It helps users inspect available tools and schemas, run calls, and format output for scripts.

Key features

  1. 01List servers and tool names
  2. 02Inspect tool parameters and JSON schemas
  3. 03Call tools with arguments
  4. 04Search tools by name
  5. 05JSON and raw-text output options

Use cases

  1. 01Find a tool across configured servers
  2. 02Check a tool’s input schema before calling it
  3. 03Run an MCP tool from the command line
  4. 04Use JSON output in scripts

MCP support

The command-line client accesses MCP servers, lists their tools, inspects schemas, and executes tool calls.

Install

Copy the command and run it in a terminal.

$npx skills add https://github.com/github/awesome-copilot --skill mcp-cli

After installing, type/mcp-cliin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.

Details

From the project README

MCP-CLI

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

Commands

CommandOutput
mcp-cliList 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

FlagPurpose
-j, --jsonJSON output for scripting
-r, --rawRaw text content
-dInclude descriptions

Exit Codes

  • 0: Success
  • 1: Client error (bad args, missing config)
  • 2: Server error (tool failed)
  • 3: Network error

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