mtpcli

The command-line interface for the Model Tools Protocol (MTP). Discover, authenticate, and bridge tools that implement the --mtp-describe convention.

CLI tools are composable but not LLM-discoverable. MCP tools are discoverable but not composable. MTP bridges the gap with a single --mtp-describe flag. mtpcli turns any --mtp-describe CLI into an MCP server, turns any MCP server into a composable CLI, and handles discovery, auth, and validation along the way. See the protocol README for the full rationale.

Install

npm install -g @modeltoolsprotocol/mtpcli

Usage

Serve CLI tools over MCP

Any CLI that supports --mtp-describe becomes an MCP server:

$ mtpcli serve --tool atlasctl --tool mytool

mtpcli serve: serving 6 tool(s) from 2 CLI tool(s)
  - atlasctl__confluence page get
  - atlasctl__config set
  - atlasctl__config get
  - mytool__convert
  ...

Drop it into your Claude Desktop config and it works like any other MCP server. The bridge reads --mtp-describe, translates commands to MCP tools, and shells out to the real CLI when the host calls a tool.

Wrap an MCP server as a CLI

Atlassian ships an MCP server at mcp.atlassian.com. With mtpcli wrap, it's a CLI:

# Discover what tools the server offers
$ mtpcli wrap --url "https://mcp.atlassian.com/v1/mcp" --mtp-describe

# Fetch a Confluence page
$ mtpcli wrap --url "https://mcp.atlassian.com/v1/mcp" \
    getConfluencePage -- --cloudId "$CLOUD_ID" --pageId 12345 --contentFormat markdown

# Pipe it into jq, grep, or anything else
$ mtpcli wrap --url "https://mcp.atlassian.com/v1/mcp" \
    getConfluencePage -- --cloudId "$CLOUD_ID" --pageId 12345 --contentFormat markdown \
    | jq -r '.body'

# Works with stdio servers too
$ mtpcli wrap --server "npx @mcp/server-github" --mtp-describe

The 2,500+ MCP servers people have built? They're all CLI tools now. Pipe their output, use them in scripts, compose them with other tools.

Search for tools and commands

# Search specific tools
mtpcli search "convert files" -- filetool mytool

# Search all cached tools
mtpcli search "deploy"

# Scan PATH for describe-compatible tools and search
mtpcli search --scan-path "git commit"

Authenticate with a tool

# OAuth2 login (opens browser, handles callback)
mtpcli auth login mytool

# API key / bearer token login
mtpcli auth login mytool --token sk-xxx

# Check auth status
mtpcli auth status mytool

# Inject token into env
eval $(mtpcli auth env mytool)

# Log out
mtpcli auth logout mytool

See AUTH.md for details on token storage, usage patterns, and bridge integration.

Validate a tool's --mtp-describe output

# Validate a tool against the MTP spec
mtpcli validate mytool

# Validate JSON from stdin (for CI)
cat describe.json | mtpcli validate --stdin

# JSON output
mtpcli validate mytool --json

Generate shell completions

# Bash
eval $(mtpcli completions bash mytool)

# Zsh
eval $(mtpcli completions zsh mytool)

# Fish
mtpcli completions fish mytool | source

Describe self

# mtpcli is itself an MTP-compliant tool
mtpcli --mtp-describe

Development

Requires Bun.

# Install dependencies
bun install

# Run tests
bun test

# Type check
bun run typecheck

# Build
bun run build

License

Apache-2.0