Swiss Army Knife for MCP Servers

What is Swiss Army Knife for MCP Servers?

Swiss Army Knife for MCP Servers is a comprehensive command-line interface for interacting with Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. It allows developers to discover, call, and manage tools, resources, and prompts from any MCP-compatible server, and supports multiple transport methods and output formats.

How to use Swiss Army Knife for MCP Servers?

Install via Homebrew on macOS (brew tap f/mcptools && brew install mcp) or from source on Windows/Linux with go install github.com/f/mcptools/cmd/mcptools@latest. Use commands like mcp tools, mcp call, mcp shell, and mcp web to interact with MCP servers.

Key features of Swiss Army Knife for MCP Servers

• List available tools, resources, and prompts from MCP servers.
• Call tools, read resources, and get prompts.
• Interactive shell and web interface for exploring servers.
• Create mock servers, proxy requests to shell scripts.
• Scaffold new MCP projects with TypeScript support.
• Guard and restrict access to specific tools and resources.
• Supports Stdio, HTTP SSE, and Streamable HTTP transports.
• Output formats: table, JSON, and pretty-printed JSON.

Use cases of Swiss Army Knife for MCP Servers

• Debugging an MCP server by listing its available tools and resources.
• Scripting tool calls in CI/CD pipelines or automation workflows.
• Testing client applications against a mock MCP server.
• Building a custom proxy that forwards tool calls to shell scripts.
• Scaffolding a new MCP server project with TypeScript.

FAQ from Swiss Army Knife for MCP Servers

How do I install Swiss Army Knife for MCP Servers?

On macOS, use Homebrew: brew tap f/mcptools && brew install mcp. On Windows and Linux, install from source: go install github.com/f/mcptools/cmd/mcptools@latest. The binary is installed as mcp (or mcpt / mcptools to avoid conflicts).

What transports does it support?

It supports three transport methods: Stdio (stdin/stdout), HTTP SSE (legacy, for URLs ending with /sse), and Streamable HTTP (recommended, auto-detected from HTTP/HTTPS URLs).

What output formats are available?

Three output formats: table (default, colorized man-page style), json (compact JSON), and pretty (indented JSON).

Can I use Swiss Army Knife for MCP Servers on Windows?

Yes. Install from source using Go on Windows, macOS, and GNU/Linux.

How do I start the web interface?

Use the mcp web command followed by the server command or URL, e.g., mcp web npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem ~ or mcp web https://ne.tools. The default port is 41999; use --port to change it.