MCP servers

The CLI connects to Model Context Protocol servers and gives their tools to the agent as mcp_<server>_<tool>. Server prompts become slash commands named /<server>:<prompt>, and server resources can be browsed with the mcp_resources and mcp_read_resource tools.

Add a server

neuralinverse mcp add files -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem ~/docs
neuralinverse mcp add docs --url https://mcp.example.com/mcp           # Streamable HTTP
neuralinverse mcp add legacy --url https://old.example.com/sse --sse   # HTTP + SSE
neuralinverse mcp add db API_TOKEN=xyz -- ./bin/db-mcp                 # with environment variables
neuralinverse mcp list
neuralinverse mcp remove files

Servers are written to .neuralinverse/settings.json; add --user to write to your user settings instead. mcp list shows each server's transport, state and number of tools.

You can also edit settings directly:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": { "type": "http", "url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/", "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer ${GITHUB_TOKEN}" } },
    "sqlite": { "type": "stdio", "command": "uvx", "args": ["mcp-server-sqlite", "--db-path", "./dev.db"] }
  }
}

${VAR} references are expanded from the environment in commands, arguments, env, URLs and headers.

Sign in to a server

Servers that use OAuth are signed in to from the shell or in a session:

neuralinverse mcp login <name>     # opens your browser; prints the URL if it does not open
neuralinverse mcp logout <name>    # signs out and removes the stored credentials

In a session, /mcp shows status and server logs, and can sign in or out.

For one run

Behaviour

• Servers connect in parallel at start-up, in the background after the prompt appears; the first message waits for them. The connect timeout is NEURALINVERSE_MCP_TIMEOUT (default 30 seconds).
• A failing server never blocks the session. Check /mcp for status and logs, and /mcp reconnect <name> to retry.
• Tool calls time out after NEURALINVERSE_MCP_TOOL_TIMEOUT (default 10 minutes).
• HTTP servers fall back from Streamable HTTP to SSE automatically.
• Above tools.deferThreshold tools (default 40), MCP tools load on demand: the agent finds them with find_tools.

Permissions

Tools that declare readOnlyHint are treated as read-only by the permission engine. Everything else asks unless a rule allows it:

{ "permissions": { "allow": ["mcp_github_*"] } }

Organisation governance decides each MCP call, including the server it goes to, before your rules. See Permissions and modes.

Administrators can lock mcpServers in managed settings so that only approved servers are used. An editor connected over ACP can add servers for its session unless managed policy locks mcpServers.

Plugins can bring MCP servers too; they appear as <plugin>-<server>.