Output Modes

mcpx supports three output modes via global flags.

Pretty (default)

Human-readable text with color. Used when no flags are specified.

mcpx serena search_symbol --name "Auth"
# Symbol: AuthService
# File: src/auth/service.go
# Kind: Class

mcpx ping serena
# serena: ok (21 tools, 47ms)

Colors are automatically disabled when output is piped or when NO_COLOR is set.

JSON (--json)

Raw JSON output. Useful for AI agents parsing results or piping to jq.

mcpx serena search_symbol --name "Auth" --json

{
  "content": [
    {
      "type": "text",
      "text": "Symbol: AuthService..."
    }
  ],
  "isError": false
}

mcpx ping serena --json

{
  "server": "serena",
  "status": "ok",
  "tools": 21,
  "ms": 47
}

mcpx list --json

{
  "serena": {
    "command": "uvx",
    "transport": "stdio",
    "daemon": true
  }
}

Quiet (--quiet)

Suppresses all output. Useful in scripts where you only care about the exit code.

mcpx ping serena --quiet
echo $?
# 0

Dry Run (--dry-run)

Shows what would execute without actually running it. Useful for debugging config and variable resolution.

mcpx serena search_symbol --name "Auth" --dry-run

Dry run — nothing will be executed

Server:  serena
Tool:    search_symbol
Command: uvx --from git+https://github.com/oraios/serena serena start-mcp-server --project /home/user/myproject
Arguments:
  {"name": "Auth"}

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning	When
0	Success	Tool call completed
1	Tool error	MCP tool returned an error
2	Config error	Bad YAML, missing server, bad variable
3	Connection error	Server won't start, timeout, transport failure

See Exit Codes for details.