mcporter

Use

mcporter

to discover, call, and manage MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers and tools directly from the terminal.

When to Use

Use this skill when the user wants to:

• inspect MCP servers already configured on the machine
• call MCP tools directly from the terminal without wiring them into the current agent first
• test ad-hoc MCP servers over HTTP or stdio
• generate CLI wrappers or TypeScript types from an MCP server

Use

native-mcp

instead when:

• the goal is persistent MCP integration inside the agent runtime
• tools should auto-load into every conversation

Usage

Recommended flow:

list servers
-> inspect tools and schemas
-> call one tool directly
-> move to config/auth/codegen only if needed

Prerequisites

Requires Node.js:

# No install needed (runs via npx)
npx mcporter list

# Or install globally
npm install -g mcporter

Quick Start

# List MCP servers already configured on this machine
mcporter list

# List tools for a specific server with schema details
mcporter list <server> --schema

# Call a tool
mcporter call <server.tool> key=value

Discovering MCP Servers

mcporter auto-discovers servers configured by other MCP clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.) on the machine. To find new servers to use, browse registries like mcpfinder.dev or mcp.so, then connect ad-hoc:

# Connect to any MCP server by URL (no config needed)
mcporter list --http-url https://some-mcp-server.com --name my_server

# Or run a stdio server on the fly
mcporter list --stdio "npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem" --name fs

Calling Tools

# Key=value syntax
mcporter call linear.list_issues team=ENG limit:5

# Function syntax
mcporter call "linear.create_issue(title: \"Bug fix needed\")"

# Ad-hoc HTTP server (no config needed)
mcporter call https://api.example.com/mcp.fetch url=https://example.com

# Ad-hoc stdio server
mcporter call --stdio "bun run ./server.ts" scrape url=https://example.com

# JSON payload
mcporter call <server.tool> --args '{"limit": 5}'

# Machine-readable output (recommended for Hermes)
mcporter call <server.tool> key=value --output json

Auth and Config

# OAuth login for a server
mcporter auth <server | url> [--reset]

# Manage config
mcporter config list
mcporter config get <key>
mcporter config add <server>
mcporter config remove <server>
mcporter config import <path>

Config file location:

./config/mcporter.json

(override with

--config

).

Daemon

For persistent server connections:

mcporter daemon start
mcporter daemon status
mcporter daemon stop
mcporter daemon restart

Code Generation

# Generate a CLI wrapper for an MCP server
mcporter generate-cli --server <name>
mcporter generate-cli --command <url>

# Inspect a generated CLI
mcporter inspect-cli <path> [--json]

# Generate TypeScript types/client
mcporter emit-ts <server> --mode client
mcporter emit-ts <server> --mode types

Notes

• Use

  --output json

  for structured output that's easier to parse
• Ad-hoc servers (HTTP URL or

  --stdio

  command) work without any config — useful for one-off calls
• OAuth auth may require interactive browser flow — use

  terminal(command="mcporter auth <server>", pty=true)

  if needed

Common Pitfalls

• using

  mcporter

  for always-on integration when

  native-mcp

  is the better fit
• forgetting

  --output json

  when machine-readable results matter
• assuming remote auth is already configured
• testing ad-hoc stdio servers without confirming the underlying command works standalone