Skillshub mcp-cli

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.

install
source · Clone the upstream repo
git clone https://github.com/ComeOnOliver/skillshub
Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/
T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/ComeOnOliver/skillshub "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/github/awesome-copilot/mcp-cli" ~/.claude/skills/comeonoliver-skillshub-mcp-cli && rm -rf "$T"
manifest: skills/github/awesome-copilot/mcp-cli/SKILL.md
source content

MCP-CLI

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

Commands

CommandOutput
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

  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, --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