mcptools

MCP Tools is a Swiss Army Knife for interacting with MCP servers. It provides a command-line interface to discover, call, and manage tools, resources, and prompts exposed by any MCP-compatible server. You can list available tools on a server, call a specific tool with parameters, open an interactive shell to explore tools live, or run a mock or proxy server for testing. The tool supports multiple transport methods (stdio, HTTP SSE, and streamable HTTP) and multiple output formats (table, json, pretty), making it suitable for scripting, automation, or ad-hoc exploration. Typical workflows include listing tools from a server, calling a tool with a JSON-encoded parameters string, and using the interactive shell to try multiple commands without writing separate scripts. It also provides features like web interfaces, project scaffolding, and guard-mode to restrict access to certain tools or resources.

Prerequisites:

• A working development environment with Go installed (the mcptools binary is distributed as a Go-based tool).
• If installing via Homebrew on macOS, ensure you have Homebrew set up and internet access.

Install from Homebrew (macOS):

brew tap f/mcptools
brew install mcp

Install from source (Linux/Windows) using Go:

go install github.com/f/mcptools/cmd/mcptools@latest

Post-install:

• Ensure mcptools is in your PATH so you can run the mcptools command from any shell.
• Verify installation:

mcp --version

Usage note: The binary may be installed as mcptools and can optionally be aliased to mcpt for convenience if there are naming conflicts.

Tips and known considerations:

• Transport methods: Use stdio for local commands, or HTTP SSE / streamable HTTP for remote MCP servers. The default behavior uses HTTP-based transports when URLs are provided.
• Output formats: Choose table, json, or pretty to suit your automation needs. The table format is colorized and acts like a manual-style listing of available tools.
• Interactive shells and web UI are available to explore servers without scripting. Use mcp shell or mcp web to start these interfaces.
• Mock and proxy modes can help with testing and extending functionality by simulating tools or routing requests to scripts.
• If you encounter transport or protocol mismatches, verify server compatibility and MCP protocol version support in your environment.
• For shell scripts and automation, prefer JSON parameters with the --params flag to ensure proper escaping.
• If you plan to expose commands publicly, consider enabling guard-mode or configuring access restrictions to prevent unintended actions.