mcp-cli

✓ Official★ 36,202

by github · part of github/awesome-copilot

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.

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#automation #database #git

🧩 One of 7 skills in the github/awesome-copilot package — works on its own, and pairs well with its siblings.

This is the playbook your agent receives when the skill activates — you don't need to read it to use the skill, but it's here to audit before installing.

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

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\": \"{}\"}"'

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