MCP CLI

MCP CLI

Call any configured MCP server tool from the command line with --flag=value style args and full shell composition support.

If mcp-call is not found, install it first: uv tool install mcp-cli-skill Always use mcp-call as the command, never uvx mcp-cli-skill.

Commands

mcp-call --servers                                    # list configured servers
mcp-call <server> --tools                             # list tools (human-readable)
mcp-call <server> --discover                          # list tools as JSON with schemas
mcp-call <server> <tool> --schema                     # show tool's input schema as JSON
mcp-call <server> <tool> --key=value ...              # call a tool
mcp-call <server> <tool> --input-json '{"key":"val"}'  # call with JSON args
echo '{}' | mcp-call <server> <tool>                  # call with stdin JSON
mcp-call --add <name> <cmd> [args] [--env K=V ...]    # add stdio server
mcp-call --add-http <name> <url> [--header 'K: V' ...] # add HTTP server (auth via --header/-H)
mcp-call --remove <name>                              # remove server
mcp-call --sync                                       # re-sync from Claude configs
mcp-call --completion <bash|zsh|fish>                 # print shell completion hook
mcp-call --refresh-completions                        # cache tool lists for tab completion
mcp-call --clear-cache [server]                       # bust the completion cache

Server Management

Config stored at ~/.mcp-cli/servers.json. On first run, seeds from ~/.claude/settings.json and ~/.claude.json. Supports both stdio and HTTP MCP servers.

mcp-call --add myredash uvx redash-mcp --env REDASH_URL=http://localhost --env REDASH_API_KEY=abc123
mcp-call --add github npx @modelcontextprotocol/server-github --env GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxx
mcp-call --remove myredash
mcp-call --sync

Examples

mcp-call redash redash_query --action=adhoc --query="$(cat /tmp/query.sql)" --data_source_id=1
mcp-call redash redash_query --action=list --page_size=5 | jq '.results[].name'
mcp-call slack slack_chat --action=post --channel=C123 --text="$(cat /tmp/msg.txt)"
mcp-call redash redash_query --action=run --id=42 | jq '.query_result.data.rows' > /tmp/result.json

Multi-tool Workflow

When you need to chain multiple MCP tools together, generate a bash script and run it:

#!/bin/bash
# Fetch github issues, search code, post to slack

# 1. Fetch open bugs
mcp-call github list_issues \
  --owner=acme --repo=backend --state=open --labels=bug \
  | jq '.[] | {number, title}' > /tmp/bugs.json

# 2. Search for related code
for title in $(jq -r '.[].title' /tmp/bugs.json | head -5); do
  mcp-call github search_code --query="$title repo:acme/backend" | jq '.items[:2]'
done > /tmp/code_matches.txt

# 3. Post summary to slack
mcp-call slack send_message \
  --channel="#engineering" \
  --text="$(jq -r '.[] | "• #\(.number): \(.title)"' /tmp/bugs.json)"

This is better than making separate MCP tool calls because you get file I/O, pipes, loops, and variable expansion for free.

When to Use

Prefer this over MCP tool calls when:

• Content comes from a file: --arg="$(cat file)"
• Output needs piping: | jq, > file, | grep
• Shell variable expansion needed: --arg="$VAR"
• Chaining multiple calls in one command

Arg Types

Values auto-parse: --id=42 → int, --flag=true → bool, --name=hello → string.

Colliding param names

If a tool has a param named help, schema, or input-json (which clash with mcp-call's own flags), pass it after --:

mcp-call srv tool --id=5 -- --help=true --schema=foo   # everything after -- goes to the tool verbatim