CLI reference

Complete reference for all mcp commands.

Output format

By default, mcp detects the output context:

• Interactive terminal — human-readable tables with colors

• Piped or redirected — JSON (for scripting with jq, etc.)

Use --json anywhere to force JSON output regardless of context:

mcp --list --json          # JSON even in terminal
mcp sentry --list --json   # JSON tool list

Global commands

mcp --help, mcp -h

Show usage information.

mcp --list

List all configured servers.

mcp --list

Interactive output:

Server     Type   Endpoint
sentry     http   https://mcp.sentry.dev/sse
slack      stdio  npx -y slack-mcp-server@latest
grafana    stdio  uvx mcp-grafana

3 server(s) configured

JSON output (--json or piped):

[
  { "name": "sentry", "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.sentry.dev/sse" },
  { "name": "slack", "type": "stdio", "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "slack-mcp-server@latest"] }
]

Global flags

--json

Force JSON output. Can be placed anywhere in the command:

mcp --json --list
mcp sentry --list --json
mcp sentry search_issues '{"query": "..."}' --json

Server commands

mcp <server> --list

Connect to the server and list available tools.

mcp sentry --list

Interactive output:

Tool                  Description
search_issues         Search for issues in Sentry
get_issue_details     Get details of a specific issue
search_events         Search events in a project

3 tool(s) available

If the server name alone is provided (no flags, no tool), this is the default behavior:

mcp sentry          # same as mcp sentry --list

mcp <server> --info

Like --list, but includes parameter details for each tool.

mcp sentry --info

Interactive output:

search_issues
  Search for issues in Sentry
  Parameters:
    query string — The search query (required)
    project string — Project slug
    sort string — Sort order

get_issue_details
  Get details of a specific issue
  Parameters:
    issue_id string — The issue ID (required)

2 tool(s) available

JSON output includes full JSON Schema for each tool's input parameters.

mcp <server> <tool> [json]

Call a tool on the server. The optional json argument is a JSON object with the tool's parameters.

mcp sentry search_issues '{"query": "is:unresolved"}'

If json is omitted:

• Interactive terminal — Uses {} (empty object)

• Piped input — Reads JSON from stdin

Interactive output prints text content directly:

Found 23 issues matching query "is:unresolved level:error"

Errors are prefixed with error: on stderr.

JSON output wraps content in the MCP protocol format:

{
  "content": [
    { "type": "text", "text": "Found 23 issues..." }
  ],
  "isError": false
}

Content items have a type field:

• "text" — Text content in the text field

• "image" — Base64-encoded image in data field, with mimeType

• "resource" — Embedded resource content

Registry commands

mcp search <query>

Search the MCP server registry.

mcp search filesystem
mcp search "database sql"

Interactive output shows a table of matching servers. JSON output returns full server metadata including repository URL and install instructions.

mcp add <name>

Add a server from the registry. Looks up the server by name, generates a config entry, and writes it to servers.json.

mcp add filesystem

Fails if:

• Server not found in registry

• Server already exists in config

• Name is reserved (search, add, remove, list, help, version)

mcp add --url <url> <name>

Add an HTTP server manually.

mcp add --url https://api.example.com/mcp my-server

mcp remove <name>

Remove a server from the config file.

mcp remove filesystem

Fails if the server is not in the config.