What Smithery CLI does
Smithery CLI is a command-line tool that connects AI agents to MCP servers and skills. It allows users to search, add, and interact with MCP server tools directly from the terminal.
Why teams reach for it: Smithery CLI keeps the whole loop in the terminal: it searches the Smithery registry, adds a server as a named connection, then lists, searches, inspects and calls that server's tools with smithery tool call, with --json for machine-readable output and --verbose for detailed logs when troubleshooting.
Worth knowing
Smithery joined Arcade.dev; the CLI repository is now arcadeai-labs/smithery-cli.
How Smithery CLI compares
Fields the vendor doesn't document are left blank here rather than guessed — a blank means nothing verified, not a "no."
- Interface
- CLI
- Transports
- stdio, Streamable HTTP
- Conformance Testing
- None
- Open Source
- Yes
How will you inspect behavior and fix failures?
Inspectors & debugging tools let developers see what's happening inside an MCP connection and fix problems when something breaks.