MCLIP

The problem

The MCP-to-CLI translation space is already crowded: mcp2cli, MCPorter, MCPShim, FastMCP generate-cli, Apify mcpc, IBM mcp-cli, developit/mcp-cmd, f/mcptools. Each picks its own flag conventions, command shapes, output formats, error structures, and resource/prompt surfaces.

Result: N MCP wrappers, N different CLI surfaces over the same MCP server. A script written against one wrapper does not run against another. The audit (wrapper-audit.md) documents five concrete portability breakages.

MCLIP standardises the translation itself, so any conformant tool produces the same scriptable surface for the same MCP server. It is not a new protocol. It is not a vendor-side standard. It applies to the tools that translate MCP into CLI — telling them how to do it consistently.

What the profile defines

MCLIP-Core plus eight independently-claimable modules. A wrapper can claim conformance on Core plus any subset of the modules its UX supports.

• MCLIP-Core Required for any conformance claim
• MCLIP-Resources First-class resources surface
• MCLIP-Prompts First-class prompts surface
• MCLIP-HTTP Standardised HTTP transport handling
• MCLIP-Streaming Resources watch as NDJSON
• MCLIP-Safety Confirmation, dry-run, force overrides
• MCLIP-Auth Token resolution and transmission
• MCLIP-Metadata Honours optional mclip.* keys
• MCLIP-Discovery Inherited config files

Specifications

Source of truth lives in the GitHub repository. The files below are the v0 draft set; everything is pre-publication and subject to revision.

• Product Requirements (PRD) prd.md

  Concept, scope, deliverables, success criteria, governance routing.

• Profile v0 profile-v0.md

  Normative specification — Core plus eight independently-claimable modules. Each rule tagged [MCLIP-§-NN] for conformance tracking.

• Security Model security-model.md

  Trust boundaries, destructive-action policy, CI-safety, credential handling, optional auditability.

• SEP — Standards Track sep-standards-mclip-profile.md

  Standards Track SEP draft wrapping the profile for filing under modelcontextprotocol/seps.

• SEP — Extensions Track sep-extensions-mclip-metadata.md

  Optional mclip.* metadata keys filed per SEP-2133. Tightening-only safety semantics.

• Conformance Fixtures conformance-fixtures.md

  30+ executable fixtures mapping rules to invocations, expected exit codes, and output shapes.

Schema namespace

The canonical MCLIP config schema is hosted under mclip.dev. Clients and editors validating an mclip.json file should reference the versioned URL below.

https://mclip.dev/schemas/config/v0.json

Draft 2020-12 JSON Schema. Tracks profile-v0.md §13.3. The schema URL is normatively cited from the profile; the schema body is hand-maintained against the spec until automated generation lands.

Current status

Pre-implementation. The seven core specification documents are written and internally consistent. The Go reference CLI and nine synthetic MCP fixture servers are designed but not yet coded; the conformance harness and a companion-implementation repo follow once the CLI is functional.

External coordination — Discord problem-statement post, draft SEP PR, wrapper-maintainer outreach — is on hold until the build block is complete.