Smithery CLI MCP Server

Install, manage and develop MCP servers and skills for agents

Local serverstdio

What is the Smithery CLI MCP server?

Smithery CLI MCP server exists for a simple reason — assistants are far more useful when they can act on Smithery CLI directly instead of describing what you should do. Install, manage and develop MCP servers and skills for agents.

What you get

Smithery CLI connects your agents to thousands of skills and MCP servers directly from the command line. To get started, simply run npx skills add smithery/cli.

What the assistant can call

Once Smithery CLI is connected, these are the calls the assistant has available:

  • Tools — Interact with tools from MCP servers connected via smithery mcp
  • Skills — Browse skills on the Smithery Skills Registry and install them with the upstream installer:
  • Auth — The Auth tool exposed by this server
  • Namespaces — The Namespaces tool exposed by this server
  • Publishing — The Publishing tool exposed by this server

Setting it up

skills on npm is all you need. Most clients run it directly, so configuration is a few lines and a restart.

Choosing this one

Plenty of developer tooling servers cover similar ground. The differences that matter in practice are scope of access and how much setup stands between you and a working tool call. Smithery CLI's toolset — Tools, Skills, Auth and 2 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by smithery-ai; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.

We check each listing at SyncDev against the project's documentation before it goes live — if something here drifts out of date, it is a bug worth reporting.

Before you rely on it

  • It runs with your machine's permissions. That is convenient and also the reason to think about what you point it at before you approve a tool call.
  • MCP clients confirm each tool call by default. Leave that on until you have watched what the smithery cli mcp server does with a few real requests.

Available tools

ToolWhat it does
ToolsInteract with tools from MCP servers connected via smithery mcp.
SkillsBrowse skills on the [Smithery Skills Registry](https://smithery.ai/skills) and install them with the upstream installer:
AuthThe Auth tool exposed by this server.
NamespacesThe Namespaces tool exposed by this server.
PublishingThe Publishing tool exposed by this server.

How to install the Smithery CLI MCP server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cli-smithery-ai": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "skills"]
    }
  }
}

Add to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop.

Example prompts to try

  • Use Smithery CLI to Tools.
  • Use Smithery CLI to Skills.
  • Use Smithery CLI to Auth.

Frequently asked questions

It connects Smithery CLI to MCP-compatible AI assistants such as Claude and Cursor, exposing 5 tools (Tools, Skills, Auth, and more) that the assistant can call on your behalf. Instead of copying data back and forth by hand, the assistant works with Smithery CLI directly.