Studio MCP

Make any CLI into an AI tool with studio MCP server.

Bright Studio Apt – Just enough, nothing more – $0/mo OBO.

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What's Included?

studio is the simplest possible way to add CLI tools that your AI Agent can use right now. Built on the Model Context Protocol, studio spawns a single tool mcp server with your command.

The tool turns everything after studio command into an MCP tool that can be called by Cursor, Claude, etc.

studio is great for patching CLIs into Claude, debugging MCPs or providing custom scripts to your LLM without having to deal with MCP.

It uses a very simple Mustache-like template syntax to provide inputs and descriptions telling the LLM how to use your command.

npx -y @studio-mcp/studio command "{ required_argument # Description of argument }" "[optional_args... # any array of arguments]"

studio turns this into an input schema for the MCP tool so that tool calls know what to send:

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "required_argument": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Description of argument"
    },
    "optional_args": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": { "type": "string" },
      "description": "any array of arguments"
    }
  },
  "required": ["required_argument"]
}

You can run almost any command, but you might need to put the full path for scripts or commands installed via other package managers. Just run which cmd to find it's full path.

Since you're just renting the place, please be a good tenant and don't rm -rf anything.

Move-In

These install instructions are like my lease agreement: full of gotchas. Have your lawyer read it over. (You do have a lawyer right?)

You can install to your system with npm or use npx directly.

npm install -g @studio-mcp/studio

Unpack (it's an apartment metaphor)

Most MCPs don't run in your shell environment 😭 You'll probably need to add the full path somewhere.

We'll use the MacOS say command as an example command. If you're not on a Mac, use echo (it's worse than useless, but it's easy to understand).

Claude Desktop

Go to the Claude Desktop settings and click Developer > Edit Config. It should open your Claude Desktop MCP configuration. (e.g. ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on Mac):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "say": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@studio-mcp/studio",
        "say",
        "-v",
        "siri",
        "{speech # A concise message to say outloud}"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to your ~/.cursor/mcp.json (in your home or project directory) or go to Tools section of the Cursor UI.

Note: A bug in Cursor breaks args with spaces.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "say": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@studio-mcp/studio",
        "say",
        "-v",
        "siri",
        "{speech#say_outloud}"
      ]
    }
  }
}

VSCode

It's a lot of the same here. Don't get confused betwee studio and stdio (that's how I got the name).

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "echo": {
        "type": "stdio",
        "command": "npx",

        "args": [
          "-y",
          "@studio-mcp/studio",
          "echo",
          "{text#What do you want to say?}"
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Template Syntax

Studio uses templates to keep your studio tidy.

studio say -v "{voice# Choose your Mac say voice}" "[args...#Any additional args]"

This creates a Studio server with two arguments: voice and args. Everything after the # will be used as the description for the LLM to understand.

Studio templates are a modified mustache format with descriptions: {name # description} but they also add shell like optional [--flag] booleans, [optional # an optional string] and [args... # array with 0 or more strings] for additional args:

• {name}: Required string argument
• [name]: Optional string argument
• [name...]: Optional array argument (spreads as multiple command line args)
• [--flag]: Optional boolean named flag that prints --flag only when true.
• {name...}: Required array (1 or more arguments required).

Inside a tag, there is a name and description:

• name: The argument name that will be shown in the MCP tool schema. Only letter numbers and underscores (dashes and underscores are interchangeable, case-insensitive).
• description: A description of what the argument should contain. Reads everything after the # to the end of the template tag.

Note: Double curly braces {{name}} are still supported for backward compatibility, but single braces {name} are preferred and used throughout the docs.

What about {cool_template_feature: string /[A-Z]+/ # Fancy tags}?

This is a simple studio, not one of those fancy 1 bedroom flats.

Maybe the landlord will get around to it at some point (but your rent will go up).

Utilities Included

To build and test locally:

make
make test
studio echo "{text # what you want said to you}"

Did something break?

The landlord definitely takes care of the place...

• more than none tests
• files! lots of 'em!
• maybe even some test coverage
• you still need Proof of Renters Insurance

Uncovered portions are tenant's responsibility. (no one appreciates how hard it is for us landlords)

Home Is Where You Make It

This is your studio too. Bugs, bedbugs, features, ideas? Swing by the repo during open-house:

🏠 https://github.com/studio-mcp/studio

Lease Terms: MIT

Move in under standard terms, no fine print. Full text here: MIT License.