CLI Reference

mcp-cli is a deliberately tiny companion to the MCP server. Everything an agent needs at runtime — instructions, skills, memory (via Serena), workspace reads — flows through the MCP stdio entrypoint (mcp-ai-agent-guidelines). The CLI exists only for the two things an agent cannot install on its own behalf:

1. IDE lifecycle hooks (SessionStart / PreToolUse) that nudge the agent back to the MCP surface when it drifts.
2. Per-IDE SKILL.md hook files so Copilot / Claude / Codex auto-discover the public instruction tools.

If you do not use those features you do not need mcp-cli at all.

# Run via npx (no install required)
npx --yes --package mcp-ai-agent-guidelines@latest mcp-cli [command]

# Or after global install
mcp-cli [command]

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Global Options

Option	Description
--version	Print version
--help	Show help

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hooks — IDE lifecycle hooks

hooks setup --client <client>

Write hook JSON to the appropriate directory for the specified IDE client. Currently supported: vscode, copilot-cli, claude-code.

mcp-cli hooks setup --client vscode
mcp-cli hooks setup --client claude-code
mcp-cli hooks setup --client copilot-cli

Each hook script triggers mcp-cli hooks remind-session on a new chat session and mcp-cli hooks remind-drift before every tool call, so agents that have drifted away from MCP tools (multiple consecutive grep / read_file / bash calls) get a one-line nudge to re-orient.

Pair with --dry-run to print the JSON without writing to disk.

hooks print --client <client>

Print the hook JSON to stdout. Same as setup --dry-run; useful for piping into custom installers.

hooks remind-session and hooks remind-drift

Invoked by the installed hook scripts at runtime — not user-facing. remind-drift accepts an optional --tool <name> argument so it can skip the reminder when the upcoming call is itself an MCP tool.

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onboard — IDE-side onboarding helpers

onboard skills [--global] [--target <client>]

Generate one SKILL.md file per public instruction inside the requested clients’ skill-hook directories.

Client	Local target	Global target
copilot	.github/skills/	~/.copilot/skills/
claude	.claude/skills/	~/.claude/skills/
codex	.agents/skills/	~/.agents/skills/

# All three clients, workspace-local
mcp-cli onboard skills

# Claude Code only, user-home install
mcp-cli onboard skills --target claude --global

--target accepts copilot, claude, codex, or all (default).

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What about everything else?

Earlier versions of mcp-cli exposed onboard init, orchestration edit, memory list, reporting, analytics, and dev commands. They were removed because Serena (via the 🧭 footer the MCP server now emits on every tool response) is the canonical cross-session memory channel, and the rest duplicated functionality the agent already reaches through the MCP server. See Serena Integration for the migration story.