mcp-cli

mcp-cli

mcp-cli reaches every MCP server configured for mcp-compression-proxy through shell commands. Nothing is loaded into context until you ask for it: search, read one tool's schema, call it.

If mcp-cli is missing, it is installed with npm install -g mcp-compression-proxy and configured in ~/.mcp-compression-proxy/servers.json. mcp-cli doctor checks the setup.

Find, inspect, call

mcp-cli search "what you want to do"        # ranked, best first
mcp-cli info <server>/<tool>                # description and input schema
mcp-cli call <server>/<tool> '<json args>'  # run it

• Search by what you want done, in plain words; exact tool names rank first. --limit N shows more results.
• Always run info before the first call to a tool, and build arguments from its inputSchema. Respect required and types.
• For awkward quoting, pipe the arguments: echo '{"path":"/tmp/a"}' | mcp-cli call fs/read_file.
• A tool whose annotations.readOnlyHint is false or absent may change things. Treat it like any other write: be sure it is what the user asked for.
• Not sure which tool fits? mcp-cli suggest "<request>" returns candidates with schemas, and a proposed call when a local model is configured. A proposal is a draft to check, never a decision.

Keep large results out of context

Ask only for what you need:

mcp-cli call github/list_issues '{"owner":"o","repo":"r"}' \
  --want '{"items":[{"number":"integer","title":"string","user.login":"string?"}]}' \
  --where 'login failures' --limit 10

• --want is the shape of the answer: object keys to keep, [x] for a list of x, leaf types string|number|integer|boolean|object|array|any, a|b for one of those values, ? for optional. JSON output is projected exactly; missing fields come back null and are listed in meta.missing.
• --where keeps the list items relevant to a topic; it may return none.
• The full output is saved; source.id is its payload ID.