Smithery AI CLI

Smithery

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Use smithery --help and <command> --help for flags, arguments, and full examples. This skill focuses on concepts and canonical workflows.

Quick Start

# 1. Install
npm install -g @smithery/cli

# 2. Authenticate (requires human to confirm in browser)
smithery auth login

# 3. Search for MCP servers
smithery mcp search "github"

# 4. Connect to a server (URL or qualified name both work)
smithery mcp add "https://github.run.tools" --id github

# 5. Browse tools (tree view — drill into groups by passing the prefix)
smithery tool list github
smithery tool list github issues.

# 6. Inspect tool input/output JSON schema
smithery tool get github issues.create

# 7. Call a tool
smithery tool call github issues.create '{"repo": "owner/repo", "title": "Bug"}'

Core Concepts

Namespaces

A namespace is the workspace boundary for Smithery resources. Servers, connections, and skills all live in a namespace. Use one namespace per app/environment (for example, my-app-dev, my-app-prod), then set it as your active context. Canonical flow:

smithery namespace list
smithery namespace create my-app-prod
smithery namespace use my-app-prod

For namespace-specific flags and overrides, run smithery namespace --help and smithery mcp --help.

Connect (MCP Connections)

A connection is a managed, long-lived MCP session. Smithery Connect handles OAuth flow, credential storage, token refresh, and session lifecycle. Connection status model:

• connected: ready to list/call tools
• auth_required: human must open authorization URL
• error: inspect details and retry/fix config

Canonical flow (single user-scoped connection):

smithery mcp add https://github.run.tools \
  --id user-123-github \
  --metadata '{"userId":"user-123"}'

smithery mcp list --metadata '{"userId":"user-123"}'
smithery tool list user-123-github

If CLI shows auth_required, tell your human to open the URL and then retry.

Token Scoping

Service tokens are restricted credentials for browser/mobile/agent usage. Never pass a full API key to untrusted code. Policy mental model:

• A token policy is one or more constraints
• In the CLI, pass one JSON object per --policy flag
• Fields inside one constraint are AND-ed (more fields = narrower)
• Lists and multiple constraints are OR-ed (more entries = wider)

Canonical user-scoped token:

smithery auth token --policy '{
  "namespaces": "my-app",
  "resources": "connections",
  "operations": ["read", "execute"],
  "metadata": { "userId": "user-123" },
  "ttl": "1h"
}'

Request-level Tool Restrictions (rpcReqMatch, experimental)

Use rpcReqMatch to restrict specific MCP JSON-RPC requests (regex by request path). Important: connection IDs are not in the JSON-RPC body, so combine:

• metadata for connection-level restriction
• rpcReqMatch for method/tool restriction

Canonical combined restriction:

smithery auth token --policy '{
  "resources": "connections",
  "operations": "execute",
  "metadata": { "connectionId": "my-github" },
  "rpcReqMatch": {
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params.name": "^issues\\."
  },
  "ttl": "30m"
}'

Automations

Automations are deterministic TypeScript scripts that call MCP tools without AI. They live in ~/.smithery/automations/ and each file exports a servers array (MCP URLs) and a run function. Smithery handles connection management and auth — the automation just calls tools.

Canonical flow:

# 1. Initialize the ~/.smithery project (once)
smithery automation init

# 2. Create an automation
smithery automation create create-linear-ticket

# 3. Edit ~/.smithery/automations/create-linear-ticket.ts
#    - Add server URLs to the servers array
#    - Implement the run function using ctx.callTool()

# 4. Run it with key=value arguments
smithery automation run create-linear-ticket ticket-name="Fix login bug" priority=high

Automation file structure:

export const servers = ["https://server.smithery.ai/linear"]

export async function run(
  args: Record<string, string>,
  ctx: {
    callTool: (server: string, toolName: string, toolArgs: Record<string, unknown>) => Promise<unknown>
  },
) {
  const result = await ctx.callTool(
    "https://server.smithery.ai/linear",
    "create_issue",
    { title: args["ticket-name"], priority: args["priority"] }
  )
  console.log("Created:", result)
}

CRUD commands: automation create, automation list, automation get, automation remove. On first run, connections are auto-created for each server URL. If auth is required, the CLI prints the authorization URL.

Programmatic Automations (SDK)

The same automation context is available as a library import for any TypeScript project. Install @smithery/cli and import createAutomationContext from @smithery/cli/automation.

import { createAutomationContext } from "@smithery/cli/automation"

const ctx = await createAutomationContext({
  servers: ["https://server.smithery.ai/linear"],
  apiKey: process.env.SMITHERY_API_KEY, // or omit to use stored key
})

const result = await ctx.callTool(
  "https://server.smithery.ai/linear",
  "create_issue",
  { title: "Bug: login page broken", priority: "high" },
)

This works anywhere — standalone scripts, API routes, background jobs, CI pipelines, etc. Connections are auto-created and MCP clients are managed for you, same as the CLI. Pass apiKey explicitly (e.g. from env vars) instead of relying on smithery auth login. Auth errors throw with an authorizationUrl property for your code to handle.

Piped Output

When output is piped, Smithery commands emit JSONL (one JSON object per line):

smithery tool list github --flat --limit 1000 | grep label