MCsm

You can connect your applications to MCP‑compatible servers using a lightweight MCP client. It supports multiple transport methods (STDIO, SSE, and Streamable HTTP) so you can run MCP locally, in CI, or over HTTP without changing your application logic. This guide walks you through practical usage, installation, and configuration steps to get you up and running fast.

How to use

Choose the transport that fits your workflow. Use STDIO when you want to run a local server process and communicate through standard input/output. Use Streamable HTTP when you prefer a remote MCP endpoint via HTTP. You can start a server in one command and interact with it through a client that handles the protocol for you.

Common usage patterns include starting a local STDIO server alongside your app, or pointing a client at a pre‑existing HTTP MCP server. In CLI mode, you can list available tools, query for endpoints, or execute specific actions supported by the connected MCP server. In UI mode, you can explore the connected servers in an Inspector UI and perform ad‑hoc requests against the MCP endpoint.

How to install

Prerequisites: ensure Node.js is installed on your system. You can verify by running node -v and npm -v in your terminal.

Install and build the MCP client locally with these steps:

git clone https://github.com/SMGoro/mcsm-mcp.git
cd mcsm-mcp
npm install
npm run build

Configuration and usage examples

Create a configuration file to specify how you want to connect to MCP servers. You can enable either a local STDIO server or a Streamable HTTP endpoint.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "stdio_mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["build/index.js", "--debug"],
      "env": {
        "MCSM_API_KEY": "your-api-key",
        "MCSM_API_URL": "http://localhost:23333",
        "DEBUG": "true"
      }
    },
    "http_mcp": {
      "type": "streamable-http",
      "url": "http://localhost:3010/mcp?mcsm-api-key=your-api-key&mcsm-api-url=http://localhost:23333"
    }
  }
}

Starting in CLI or UI modes

CLI mode lets you perform scripted MCP actions without a UI. UI mode launches the Inspector UI to interactively work with your connected MCP servers.

To run the Inspector UI with a local configuration file, start the UI and point it to your mcp.json configuration.

Notes

If you have multiple MCP servers to test, you can define both an HTTP and a STDIO server in the same configuration. The HTTP entry connects remotely, while the STDIO entry runs a local process and communicates through STDIO.

Available tools

tools_list

Fetches the list of available MCP tools from a connected MCP server.