Configuration
Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers extend cecli’s capabilities by providing additional tools and functionality to the AI models. MCP servers can add features like git operations, context retrieval, and other specialized tools.

Configuring MCP Servers

Cecli supports configuring MCP servers using the MCP Server Configuration schema. Please see the Model Context Protocol documentation for more information.

Keepalive Mechanism

For HTTP-based servers, you can enable a keepalive mechanism to prevent connections from dropping during long idle periods. This is done by adding the keepalive_interval property to your server configuration.

keepalive_interval: (Optional) An integer specifying the interval in seconds for sending a heartbeat (an OPTIONS request) to the server.
- If not provided, it defaults to 300 seconds.
- The value must be between 5 and 300 seconds.

Example with keepalive enabled:

mcp-servers:
  mcpServers:
    context7:
      transport: http
      url: https://mcp.context7.com/mcp
      keepalive_interval: 60 # Send a heartbeat every 60 seconds

You have two ways of sharing your MCP server configuration with cecli.

Today, CECLI/Cecli supports connecting to MCP servers using stdio, http, and sse transports.

Config Files

You can configure MCP servers in your .cecli.conf.yml file using either JSON or YAML format:

JSON Configuration

mcp-servers: |
  {
    "mcpServers": {
      "git": {
        "transport": "http",
        "url": "http://localhost:8000"
      }
    }
  }

YAML Configuration

mcp-servers:
  mcpServers:
    context7:
      transport: http
      url: https://mcp.context7.com/mcp
    deepwiki:
      transport: http
      url: https://mcp.deepwiki.com/mcp

Or specify a configuration file:

mcp-servers-file: /path/to/mcp.json

These options are configurable in any of cecli’s config file formats.

Also, you are able to say if you would like an mcp enabled/disabled in the config itself via "enabled" key By default MCP servers are enabled, so you MUST explicitly disable them in the config if you dont wish for them to be included when cecli starts up

Flags

You can specify MCP servers directly on the command line using the --mcp-servers option with a JSON or YAML string:

Using a JSON String

cecli --mcp-servers '{"mcpServers":{"git":{"transport":"http","url":"http://localhost:8000"}}}'

Using a YAML String

cecli --mcp-servers 'mcpServers:
  context7:
    transport: http
    url: https://mcp.context7.com/mcp
  deepwiki:
    transport: http
    url: https://mcp.deepwiki.com/mcp'

Using a configuration file

Alternatively, you can store your MCP server configurations in a JSON or YAML file and reference it with the --mcp-servers-file option:

cecli --mcp-servers-file mcp.json

Specifying the transport

You can use the --mcp-transport flag to specify the transport for all configured MCP servers that do not have a transport specified.

cecli --mcp-transport http

Environment Variables

You can also configure MCP servers using environment variables in your .env file using JSON or YAML format:

CECLI_MCP_SERVERS={"mcpServers":{"git":{"transport": "stdio", "command":"uvx","args":["mcp-server-git"]}}}

Or specify a configuration file:

CECLI_MCP_SERVERS_FILE=/path/to/mcp.json

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues with MCP servers:

Use the --verbose flag to see detailed information about MCP server loading
Check that the specified executables are installed and available in your PATH
Verify that your JSON or YAML configuration is valid

For more information about specific MCP servers and their capabilities, refer to their respective documentation.

Common MCP Servers

Here are some commonly used MCP servers that can enhance cecli’s capabilities:

Chrome DevTools

Chrome DevTools MCP provides browser automation and debugging capabilities through Chrome’s DevTools Protocol, enabling web page interaction, network monitoring, and performance analysis. It connects to a running Chrome instance and offers tools for web development testing and automation. Note: the configuration below requires you to start chrome with remote debugging enabled before starting the coding agent.

mcp-servers:
  mcpServers:
    chrome-devtools:
      transport: stdio
      command: npx
      args: [
        "chrome-devtools-mcp@latest",
        "--browser-url",
        "http://127.0.0.1:9222"
      ]

Context7

Context7 MCP provides up-to-date, version-specific documentation and code examples directly from the source into your LLM prompts, eliminating outdated information and hallucinations. It offers a streamlined integration experience with built-in caching mechanisms and is optimized for explorative agentic workflows.

mcp-servers:
  mcpServers:
    context7:
      transport: http
      url: https://mcp.context7.com/mcp

DeepWiki

DeepWiki MCP is an unofficial server that crawls Deepwiki URLs, converts pages to Markdown, and returns them as a single document or a list. It features domain safety, HTML sanitization, and link rewriting to provide clean, structured documentation from Deepwiki repositories.

mcp-servers:
  mcpServers:
    deepwiki:
      transport: http
      url: https://mcp.deepwiki.com/mcp

GitHub

GitHub MCP provides access to GitHub repositories, issues, pull requests, and other GitHub resources. It enables AI models to interact with GitHub data, read repository contents, and perform various GitHub operations. The server runs in a Docker container and requires a GitHub Personal Access Token for authentication.

mcp-servers:
  mcpServers:
    github:
      transport: stdio
      command: "docker"
      args: [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=<access_token>",
        "ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server"
      ]

Serena

Serena MCP provides LSP support for the current project, offering code analysis, symbol navigation, and project-specific tooling. It runs as a local stdio server and provides context-aware development assistance directly within the IDE environment.

mcp-servers:
  mcpServers:
    serena:
      transport: stdio
      command: uvx
      args: [
        "--from",
        "git+https://github.com/oraios/serena",
        "serena",
        "start-mcp-server",
        "--context",
        "ide",
        "--project",
        "{project path}"
      ]

You.com Search (Paid Service)

You.com MCP provides live web and news search with LLM-ready results, useful when the model needs current information — release notes, library docs, error messages — beyond its training cutoff, and as the search complement to /web (search first, then scrape the best result).

Free tier — no account, no API key. The ?profile=free endpoint used in the configuration below is limited to 100 queries per day (rate limited per IP) and exposes the you-search tool only.

Paid tier. An API key raises the rate limit and unlocks the remaining tools: you-contents (page content extraction), you-research (cited multi-source research), you-finance, you-discover, and you-balance. Usage beyond the free allowance is pay-as-you-go — see pricing and the MCP server docs.

mcp-servers:
  mcpServers:
    youcom:
      transport: http
      url: https://api.you.com/mcp?profile=free
      # With a You.com API key (unlocks you-contents and you-research):
      # url: https://api.you.com/mcp
      # headers:
      #   Authorization: "Bearer <your YDC_API_KEY>"

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