MCP Servers

Pi connects to Model Context Protocol servers over stdio or streamable HTTP and makes their tools available to the model.

Add servers to ~/.pi/agent/mcp.json, or to .pi/mcp.json in a project. The format matches other MCP clients, so existing mcpServers entries can be copied over:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "."]
    },
    "docs": {
      "url": "https://example.com/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer ${DOCS_TOKEN}" },
      "exposure": "direct"
    }
  }
}

• stdio servers take command, args, env, and cwd. Relative cwd resolves against the session directory. A leading ~/ in command, an argument, or cwd names the home directory.
• HTTP servers take url, headers, and oauth (see Sign in with OAuth). The legacy SSE transport is not supported.
• env and headers values can reference environment variables (${NAME}) or commands (!command), like provider API keys.
• timeout sets the per-request timeout in seconds (default 60). Progress notifications from the server reset it.
• enabled: false keeps an entry without connecting to it.

Project entries replace global entries with the same name. A project mcp.json is only read after the project is trusted, because stdio servers run commands.

pi mcp add and pi mcp remove edit the file from a shell (see MCP commands):

pi mcp add filesystem -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem .
pi mcp add docs --url https://example.com/mcp --bearer-token-env-var DOCS_TOKEN --exposure direct
pi mcp add -l tools --env API_KEY='${TOOLS_KEY}' -- uvx tools-mcp
pi mcp remove docs

Rules that are easy to get wrong:

• Server names may only contain letters, digits, _, and -. Tools are named mcp__<server>__<tool>.
• type is optional: a command makes a stdio server and a url a streamable HTTP server. When present, it must be stdio, http, or streamable-http. sse is rejected; most servers that document an SSE endpoint also serve streamable HTTP, often at /mcp instead of /sse.
• command is a single executable and args its arguments, not one shell string.
• Keep secrets out of the file: use ${NAME} for environment variables, as in "Authorization": "Bearer ${GITHUB_TOKEN}", or !command to run a command. A command must make up the whole value, so it has to print the header value itself: "Authorization": "!echo Bearer $(gh auth token)".
• Invalid entries are skipped and reported; the other servers still connect.

When asked to add an MCP server, the agent should:

1. Add simple servers with pi mcp add (add -l for the project file), or edit mcp.json directly for settings the command does not cover. Put personal servers and servers with credentials in ~/.pi/agent/mcp.json. Use the project .pi/mcp.json only for servers the project itself needs, and only in trusted projects.
2. Convert entries written for other clients:
   • Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and Cursor use the same mcpServers shape; copy the entry.
   • VS Code uses a top-level servers object and inputs prompts; move the entry under mcpServers and replace ${input:...} with ${NAME} environment variables.
   • Codex uses TOML ([mcp_servers.<name>] with command, args, env, or url); write the same fields as JSON.
   • opencode uses "type": "local" with command as an array (split it into command and args), "type": "remote" for URLs, environment for env, and {env:NAME} for ${NAME}.
3. Run pi mcp list to check the entry. It connects to every enabled server and prints the state, the tools, and errors such as the stderr of a stdio server that failed to start. It exits with 1 while anything is wrong.
4. For a server that needs a sign-in, run pi mcp login <server>. It opens the authorization page in the user's browser and waits until the user approves access; tell the user to approve it. A running session uses the new credentials on its next turn.
5. Tell the user to run /reload (or start a new session) so the running session connects to added or changed servers.

Pi connects when a session starts. The first prompt waits up to 10 seconds for startup connections; the tools of servers that take longer become available once they connect. HTTP connections that fail with a network error or a transient status (408, 429, 5xx) are retried twice. A server that drops its connection shows as disconnected and is reconnected on the next call. When a server announces that its tool list changed, new tools are added and withdrawn tools become unreachable until the server offers them again.

Config errors, servers that failed to connect, and servers that need a sign-in are reported once after startup.

Log messages servers send with MCP logging notifications are appended to ~/.pi/agent/mcp.log as <time> [<server>] <level> <logger>: <message>. The file is moved to mcp.log.1 when it grows past 5 MB.

/mcp opens the server manager. It lists every configured server with its state, tool count, exposure, and whether it comes from the global or the project mcp.json; servers that need attention come first. Select a server to:

• sign in, for OAuth servers that need it (see Sign in with OAuth)
• see its tools, its command or URL, and the full connection error, including the tail of a stdio server's stderr
• reconnect
• sign out, which deletes the stored OAuth credentials
• change its exposure (see Exposure)
• disable or enable it

Exposure changes and enabling or disabling are saved to the mcp.json that defines the server; other content of the file is kept. Disabled servers stay listed so they can be enabled again.

Outside the interactive TUI, /mcp prints the server status. /mcp login <server>, /mcp logout <server>, and /mcp reconnect <server> run those actions directly.

From a shell, pi mcp add, pi mcp remove, pi mcp list, pi mcp login <server>, and pi mcp logout <server> manage servers without a session (see MCP commands).

Stopping a stdio server closes its stdin, then sends SIGTERM and finally SIGKILL to its whole process group, so servers started through wrappers such as npx or uvx do not linger.

Remote servers that use OAuth, such as Sentry, need no credentials in mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sentry": { "url": "https://mcp.sentry.dev/mcp" }
  }
}

When such a server rejects the connection, /mcp shows it as needing sign-in. Select it and choose "Sign in" (or run /mcp login sentry, or pi mcp login sentry in a shell) to open the authorization page in your browser. After you approve access, the browser redirects to a temporary server on 127.0.0.1 and pi connects. If the browser runs on another machine, for example over SSH, paste the URL it was redirected to into the sign-in screen instead.

Pi registers itself with the authorization server (dynamic client registration), stores tokens in ~/.pi/agent/mcp-auth.json, and refreshes access tokens automatically when they expire or the server rejects them. If the server later asks for more scope than was granted, it shows as needing sign-in again, and signing in requests the new scope. "Sign out" in /mcp (or /mcp logout sentry) deletes the stored credentials.

OAuth applies to HTTP servers without an Authorization header. For authorization servers that do not support dynamic client registration, configure a pre-registered client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "example": {
      "url": "https://mcp.example.com/mcp",
      "oauth": { "clientId": "my-client", "clientSecret": "${EXAMPLE_SECRET}", "callbackPort": 8765 }
    }
  }
}

The redirect URI must match the one registered for the client. callbackPort fixes it to http://127.0.0.1:<port>/callback. For another redirect URI, set callbackUrl, for example "callbackUrl": "http://localhost:8080/oauth/callback". It must be an http URI on localhost, 127.0.0.1, or [::1], and is sent exactly as written. Without a port in callbackUrl, pi listens on callbackPort, or on a free port, and adds it to the URI; authorization servers accept any port for loopback redirects (RFC 8252). clientSecret is optional and can reference environment variables or commands.

scope sets the scopes to request, separated by spaces, for servers that do not advertise the ones they need. Without it, pi requests the scopes the server advertises. When a server later asks for more scope, pi requests those on top of scope.

Each server's tools are registered as mcp__<server>__<tool>. The exposure setting controls how the model reaches them:

• codemode (default): the tools are callable from codemode scripts and listed in the codemode tool's description, but are not declared to the model. Large MCP tool lists stay out of the model's tool declarations, and scripts can call several MCP tools, in parallel if needed, while returning only the part of the result the model needs. Pi activates the codemode tool when such a server connects. Large servers do not fill the description: declarations share a token budget, and scripts find the remaining tools with searchTools() (see codemode).
• codemode-deferred: like codemode, but the tools are not listed in the codemode tool's description either; it only names the server and its tool count. Scripts call them by name and find them with searchTools() or in ALL_TOOLS. Use it for large servers that codemode scripts use rarely.
• deferred: the tools are not declared to the model until the tool_search tool loads them. The model searches, and the matches are declared from its next call on and called directly, without codemode. Pi activates the tool_search tool when such a server connects. Use it for large servers without codemode.
• direct: the tools are declared to the model like built-in tools, and are also callable from codemode.
• hidden: the tools are registered but cannot be called.

toolExposure sets the exposure of single tools and overrides exposure for them. Keys are tool names as the server offers them, or patterns where * matches any characters. An exact name wins over patterns; among patterns, the first match in the object wins. With hidden as the server's exposure, only the listed tools are reachable:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/",
      "exposure": "deferred",
      "toolExposure": {
        "search_code": "direct",
        "get_*": "codemode",
        "delete_*": "hidden"
      }
    }
  }
}

pi mcp list marks tools whose exposure differs from the server's, and the Tools view in /mcp shows it too.

Tools that are not declared (codemode, codemode-deferred, and deferred exposure) are reachable through either tool: codemode scripts can call all of them, and tool_search can load any of them. For example, with codemode active, scripts can call the tools of a deferred server, and with tool_search active, the model can load the tools of a codemode server.

Tools called from codemode scripts do not depend on the active tool set, so they stay callable after /tree, resume, and fork. Tools loaded by tool_search are recorded in the transcript like any other tool change and stay declared on that branch. To keep codemode active without MCP servers too, add "defaultTools": ["+codemode"] to settings. To keep pi from activating the codemode tool, set "autoEnableCodemode": false at the top level of mcp.json, next to mcpServers. A project mcp.json value overrides the global one. Pi warns once when neither codemode nor tool_search is active, since the tools then cannot be called.

Text results over 20KB reach the model with the middle cut out, in the format Codex uses: the start and end of the text around a …N chars truncated… marker. The full text is saved to a temp file whose path the result names. Codemode scripts always receive the whole result, so a script can filter a large result down to what the model needs.

Codemode scripts receive an MCP tool's whole CallToolResult (content blocks as sent by the server, structuredContent, and isError), and the codemode description declares it as CallToolResult<T>. A result with isError resolves in scripts and is reported to the model as an error for direct calls. image(result.content[0]) forwards an image block to the model. The server's instructions describe its tools in the codemode description.

When a connected server offers resources, pi adds the resource tools Codex and opencode use:

• list_mcp_resources lists resources as JSON: { server?, resources: [{ server, uri, name, ... }], nextCursor? }. With server, it lists one page of that server, and cursor continues with the next one. Without, it lists every resource of every server.
• list_mcp_resource_templates lists URI templates for resources the servers do not list, in the same way.
• read_mcp_resource reads a resource given server and uri. Text resources reach the model as text and images as images; other binary resources are saved to temp files, and the model sees the file path. Scripts receive { server, uri, contents }.

The tools reach every enabled server with resources whose exposure is not hidden, and take the widest exposure among them: direct if one of the servers is direct, else codemode, else codemode-deferred, else deferred. Resource links in tool results name read_mcp_resource and the server.

Resources for MCP Apps (ui:// URIs or text/html;profile=mcp-app) are left out of the listings, since pi does not render them, and so are resource icons.

Reading and listing resources is retried once after a transient HTTP error (408, 429, 5xx). Tool calls are not retried, since the server may have run them.

Every MCP call goes through pi's tool pipeline, so tool_call and tool_result extension handlers, including permission gates, apply to MCP tools. Calls made from codemode scripts carry the codemode call's id as parentToolCallId. pi.getAllTools() reports the tool annotations servers declare (readOnlyHint, destructiveHint, idempotentHint, openWorldHint), so a permission extension can confirm only calls that change something (see Extensions). The resource tools are marked read-only.

Extensions can add servers for the current session with pi.registerMcpServer(name, config), using the same config shape as mcp.json (see Extensions). They connect like configured servers and appear in /mcp with the extension as their source. Enabling, disabling, and exposure changes for them apply to the current session only. A server in mcp.json with the same name takes precedence; /mcp lists the overridden registration. pi mcp shell commands do not load extensions and only see mcp.json servers.

An installed extension that registers the /mcp command, such as pi-mcp-adapter, replaces the built-in MCP support: pi then neither reads mcp.json in sessions nor connects servers, and /mcp belongs to that extension. Remove the extension to use the built-in support. To turn off the built-in support without installing another extension, disable mcp under Built-in in pi config, or set "extensions": ["-builtin:mcp"] in settings; pi mcp shell commands still work. Likewise, an extension that registers a tool named codemode or tool_search replaces the built-in tool of that name. pi mcp shell commands always use the built-in support.

SDK sessions do not load the built-in extensions. Add the MCP extension, the codemode extension for codemode and codemode-deferred servers, and the tool search extension for deferred servers to the resource loader. See SDK.