mcporter/docs/local.md

summary	read_when
How to run mcporter directly from the repo (tsx, tsx --watch, built artifacts) without npx.	Setting up a local development loop for this repo

Running mcporter Locally

You don’t need npx every time—here are the three local entry points we use while developing mcporter itself.

1. Direct TypeScript entry (no build step)

All commands can be executed with tsx straight from src/cli.ts:

# list servers (text)
pnpm exec tsx src/cli.ts list

# list servers as JSON
pnpm exec tsx src/cli.ts list --json

# call a tool (auto formatted)
pnpm exec tsx src/cli.ts call context7.resolve-library-id libraryName=react

# call a tool but emit structured JSON on success/failure
pnpm exec tsx src/cli.ts call context7.resolve-library-id libraryName=react --output json

# auth flow
pnpm exec tsx src/cli.ts auth vercel

# auth flow with structured JSON status
pnpm exec tsx src/cli.ts auth vercel --json

# ad-hoc auth
pnpm exec tsx src/cli.ts auth https://mcp.supabase.com/mcp

These invocations match the pnpm mcporter:* scripts and are ideal when you’re iterating on TypeScript without rebuilding.

2. Compiled CLI from dist/

When you want the same behaviour the published package ships with:

pnpm build          # emits dist/...
node dist/cli.js list
node dist/cli.js call chrome-devtools.take_snapshot

Set flags exactly as you would in production:

MCPORTER_DEBUG_HANG=1 node dist/cli.js list
MCPORTER_NO_FORCE_EXIT=1 node dist/cli.js call linear.search_documentation query="automations"

3. Workspace executables

After pnpm add mcporter in your project (or inside this repo), the shim binaries are available:

pnpm mcporter:list
pnpm mcporter:call context7.get-library-docs topic=hooks

Debug flags recap

• MCPORTER_DEBUG_HANG=1 – dumps active handles around shutdown (pairs well with tmux; see docs/hang-debug.md).
• MCPORTER_NO_FORCE_EXIT=1 – keeps the process alive even after cleanup (useful while inspecting debug output).
• MCPORTER_FORCE_EXIT=1 – force termination even if the above is set.
• MCPORTER_STDIO_LOGS=1 – print the buffered stderr output from stdio MCP servers (handy when debugging noisy backends).

All three entry points honour the same --config, --root, and --log-level flags as the published CLI.