Interface for MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers via CLI. Use when you need to interact with external tools, APIs, or data sources through MCP servers, list available MCP servers/tools, or call MCP tools from command line.
Command-line interface for discovering and executing MCP server tools and external integrations.
Five core commands cover server discovery, tool exploration, schema inspection, execution, and grep-based searching across all available tools Supports JSON input/output for scripting, raw text extraction, and description flags for verbose tool documentation Handles complex JSON arguments via heredoc, stdin piping, or file input to accommodate special characters and multi-line payloads Distinguishes exit codes by error type: client errors (1), server/tool failures (2), and network issues (3) for reliable error handling in automation
Also in this package
Other skills from github/awesome-copilot · top by installs.
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
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
# 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\": \"{}\"}"'
