Reference
Builtin and MCP tools
Reference for clai builtin tools and Model Context Protocol (MCP) server integration.
On this page
When invoked with -t (or a profile that enables tools), clai exposes builtin tools and any configured MCP server tools to the model.
Builtin tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
bash |
Execute a shell command and return stdout / stderr. |
rg |
Search file contents using ripgrep patterns. |
file_tree |
Render a directory tree of the workspace. |
find |
Locate files by name or pattern. |
write_file |
Create or update a file on disk. |
web_search |
Perform a web search query. |
website_text |
Fetch and extract readable text from a URL. |
recall |
Retrieve slices of truncated tool outputs stored earlier in the session. |
clai_Check / clai_Wait / clai_Kill |
Inspect, wait on, or terminate backgrounded sub-processes started by tools. |
MCP server tools
Each JSON file in ~/.config/.clai/mcpServers/<server>.json defines an MCP server launched over stdio. Tools discovered from <server> are exposed as mcp_<server>_<tool> and can be matched with globs such as -t="mcp_github_*".
See MCP servers and builtin tools for examples.