Discovery
mcpal can pull MCP server definitions from other clients you already
have installed. Run mcpal server discover to scan, or mcpal server list (default) to see your registered + discovered entries side by side.
Supported clients
| Source | Files |
|---|---|
claude-code | ~/.claude.json |
claude-desktop | ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) / %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows) |
cursor | ~/.cursor/mcp.json, project .cursor/mcp.json |
opencode | ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json |
vscode | <Code config>/User/mcp.json, project .vscode/mcp.json |
vscode-user | <Code config>/User/settings.json (chat.mcp.servers key) |
continue | <Code config>/User/globalStorage/continue.continue/config.json |
cline | <Code config>/User/globalStorage/saoudrizwan.claude-dev/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json |
codex | ~/.codex/config.toml |
lm-studio | ~/.lmstudio/mcp.json |
windsurf | ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json |
zed | ~/.config/zed/settings.json (context_servers key) |
<Code config> resolves to %APPDATA%\Code on Windows,
~/Library/Application Support/Code on macOS, ~/.config/Code on Linux.
Refer to a discovered server with <source>:<name> — e.g.
mcpal tool list cursor:linear. Bare names resolve when unambiguous.
Custom paths
mcpal --discover-from ~/.config/private/team.json server list --discovered
--discover-from is repeatable and combines with the built-in sources.
Files must use the { "mcpServers": { "<name>": { ... } } } shape.
Missing files are skipped silently; parse errors log under -v.