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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/superradcompany/tool-cli/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Before publishing, you validate your manifest and pack your project into a bundle. The bundle is the artifact that gets uploaded to the registry and downloaded by users.

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Validate

tool validate checks your manifest.json for errors and warnings without producing any output file. 
tool validate                     # Validate current directory
tool validate ./my-tool           # Validate specific path
tool validate --strict            # Treat warnings as errors
tool validate --json              # JSON output for CI/CD
tool validate -q                  # Quiet mode (errors only)

--strict

Promotes all warnings to errors. Useful in CI to enforce manifest quality.

--json

Outputs structured JSON — ideal for parsing results in scripts or pipelines.
Run validation as a pre-publish check, or integrate it into your CI pipeline with --json for machine-readable output.

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Pack

tool pack bundles your project into a single distributable file. It runs validation first by default, then creates the archive. 
tool pack                         # Pack current directory
tool pack ./my-tool               # Pack specific directory
tool pack -o release.mcpb         # Custom output filename
tool pack --no-validate           # Skip validation step
tool pack -v                      # Show files being added
tool pack --multi-platform        # Pack bundles for each platform override

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Output filename

By default, tool pack creates <name>-<version>.mcpb (or .mcpbx) in the current directory. Use -o to specify a custom path: 
tool pack -o ./dist/my-tool-1.0.0.mcpb
The -o flag is ignored when using --multi-platform. Platform-specific filenames are generated automatically.

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Verbose mode

Pass -v to see every file being added to the archive: 
tool pack -v
This is helpful for confirming that no unexpected files are included and that your .mcpbignore patterns are working correctly.

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Skipping validation

In automated environments where you have already run tool validate separately, skip it with --no-validate: 
tool validate --strict && tool pack --no-validate

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Bundle formats

tool-cli automatically picks the right file format based on your manifest.

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.mcpb (MCPB)

The standard MCPB format. Used for bundled servers that:
  • Run over stdio transport
  • Have an entry_point and server.type
  • Do not use system_config, mcp_config.url, mcp_config.headers, or mcp_config.oauth_config
A .mcpb file is a zip archive containing the manifest.json and all bundled server files.

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.mcpbx (MCPBX)

The MCPBX extension format. tool-cli produces .mcpbx automatically whenever the manifest uses any feature beyond the base MCPB spec:
  • Reference mode — no entry_point or no server.type
  • HTTP transport — server.transport: "http"
  • system_config present
  • mcp_config extensions — url, headers, or oauth_config present
The separate extension allows MCP hosts to know upfront whether they support the manifest before attempting to install it. You never need to choose the format manually — tool pack and tool publish handle it for you.
Reference-mode tools (pointing to npx, uvx, or a remote URL) always produce .mcpbx and do not need multi-platform publishing, since they bundle no platform-specific code.

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Multi-platform packing

If your tool has platform-specific binaries or native addons, use --multi-platform to create one bundle per platform defined in your manifest’s platform_overrides: 
tool pack --multi-platform
This produces a bundle for each platform entry in server.mcp_config.platform_overrides, plus a universal fallback. See Multi-platform publishing for details.

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