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What is MCP

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open protocol from Anthropic that gives AI agents a uniform interface to any external data source or tool — filesystems, git repos, databases, APIs, design files, Slack messages…

mimo-tui v0.2 ships a complete MCP client, so you can reuse any MCP server already written for Claude Code / Codex / Cursor.

Why it matters

Without MCP, every new integration means writing agent code with bespoke schemas. With MCP:

  1. Install an MCP server (npm / pip / brew)
  2. Add one entry to ~/.mimo/mcp.json
  3. Restart mimo — its tools appear, the agent can call them

Current support

TransportStatus
stdio (subprocess)✅ v0.2
streamable HTTP⏳ v0.3
SSE⏳ v0.3

The vast majority of official MCP servers use stdio, so stdio is enough.

Native tools vs MCP tools

mimo ships 8 native tools (read_file / shell / glob / etc.). MCP tools are additional, namespaced as mcp__<server>__<tool> to avoid clashes:

read_file ← built-in
mcp__fs__read_file ← from MCP filesystem server

The model picks. Rule of thumb:

  • Built-ins: common operations (read files, run shell)
  • MCP: external systems (databases, advanced git, network services)

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