MCP CLI client

A simple CLI program to run LLM prompt and implement Model Context Protocol (MCP) client.

You can use any MCP-compatible servers from the convenience of your terminal.

This act as alternative client beside Claude Desktop. Additionally you can use any LLM provider like OpenAI, Groq, or local LLM model via llama.

Setup

1. Install via pip:

   pip install mcp-client-cli
   

2. Create a ~/.llm/config.json file to configure your LLM and MCP servers:

   {
     "systemPrompt": "You are an AI assistant helping a software engineer...",
     "llm": {
       "provider": "openai",
       "model": "gpt-4",
       "api_key": "your-openai-api-key",
       "temperature": 0.7,
       "base_url": "https://api.openai.com/v1"  // Optional, for OpenRouter or other providers
     },
     "mcpServers": {
       "fetch": {
         "command": "uvx",
         "args": ["mcp-server-fetch"],
         "requires_confirmation": ["fetch"],
         "enabled": true,  // Optional, defaults to true
         "exclude_tools": []  // Optional, list of tool names to exclude
       },
       "brave-search": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-brave-search"],
         "env": {
           "BRAVE_API_KEY": "your-brave-api-key"
         },
         "requires_confirmation": ["brave_web_search"]
       },
       "youtube": {
         "command": "uvx",
         "args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/adhikasp/mcp-youtube", "mcp-youtube"]
       }
     }
   }
   

   Note:

   • See CONFIG.md for complete documentation of the configuration format
   • Use requires_confirmation to specify which tools need user confirmation before execution
   • The LLM API key can also be set via environment variables LLM_API_KEY or OPENAI_API_KEY
   • The config file can be placed in either ~/.llm/config.json or $PWD/.llm/config.json
   • You can comment the JSON config file with // if you like to switch around the configuration

3. Run the CLI:

   llm "What is the capital city of North Sumatra?"
   

Usage

Basic Usage

$ llm What is the capital city of North Sumatra?
The capital city of North Sumatra is Medan.

You can omit the quotes, but be careful with bash special characters like &, |, ; that might be interpreted by your shell.

You can also pipe input from other commands or files:

$ echo "What is the capital city of North Sumatra?" | llm
The capital city of North Sumatra is Medan.

$ echo "Given a location, tell me its capital city." > instructions.txt
$ cat instruction.txt | llm "West Java"
The capital city of West Java is Bandung.

Image Input

You can pipe image files to analyze them with multimodal LLMs:

$ cat image.jpg | llm "What do you see in this image?"
[LLM will analyze and describe the image]

$ cat screenshot.png | llm "Is there any error in this screenshot?"
[LLM will analyze the screenshot and point out any errors]

Using Prompt Templates

You can use predefined prompt templates by using the p prefix followed by the template name and its arguments:

# List available prompt templates
$ llm --list-prompts

# Use a template
$ llm p review  # Review git changes
$ llm p commit  # Generate commit message
$ llm p yt url=https://youtube.com/...  # Summarize YouTube video

Triggering a tool

$ llm What is the top article on hackernews today?

================================== Ai Message ==================================
Tool Calls:
  brave_web_search (call_eXmFQizLUp8TKBgPtgFo71et)
 Call ID: call_eXmFQizLUp8TKBgPtgFo71et
  Args:
    query: site:news.ycombinator.com
    count: 1
Brave Search MCP Server running on stdio

# If the tool requires confirmation, you'll be prompted:
Confirm tool call? [y/n]: y

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