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MCP Integration

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) lets you extend Caboose with external tool servers. MCP servers expose additional capabilities — fetching web content, querying databases, interacting with APIs — that the agent can call just like its built-in tools.

Built-in presets

Section titled “Built-in presets”

Caboose includes four MCP presets you can toggle on without any configuration:

  • Context7 — retrieves up-to-date library documentation, so the agent works with current APIs rather than stale training data.
  • Fetch — fetches web page content, useful for referencing online resources during a session.
  • GitHub — access GitHub issues, pull requests, file contents, and repo search. Requires a GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable.
  • GitLab — access GitLab issues, merge requests, file contents, and repo search. Requires a GITLAB_TOKEN environment variable.

Toggle presets on or off from the /mcp dropdown using Tab, or press Enter to manage a server (restart or remove it).

Adding custom servers

Section titled “Adding custom servers”

Add custom MCP servers from the /mcp dropdown, or define them directly in your config:

[mcp.servers.my-database]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "@my-org/db-mcp-server", "--connection", "postgres://localhost/mydb"]


[mcp.servers.github]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"]

Transports

Section titled “Transports”

Caboose supports both MCP transport types:

stdio (local processes)

Section titled “stdio (local processes)”

The default. Caboose spawns the server as a child process and communicates over stdin/stdout. Each server entry needs a command and args array:

[mcp.servers.my-server]
command = "node"
args = ["path/to/server.js"]

SSE / HTTP (remote servers)

Section titled “SSE / HTTP (remote servers)”

Connect to a remote MCP server by URL instead of spawning a local process:

[mcp.servers.remote-tools]
url = "https://my-mcp-server.example.com/sse"

Use this for shared team servers, cloud-hosted tools, or any server you can’t run locally.

Tool namespacing

Section titled “Tool namespacing”

Tools from MCP servers are namespaced as server:tool_name to avoid collisions. For example, a tool called query from the my-database server appears as my-database:query.

Async connections

Section titled “Async connections”

MCP servers connect in the background. The UI never blocks while waiting for a server — you can start working immediately and MCP tools appear as their servers finish connecting. If a server fails to start, Caboose reports the error without interrupting your session.

Managing servers

Section titled “Managing servers”

Use /mcp at any time to see the status of all configured servers. Toggle on/off with Tab or select a server with Enter to restart or remove it. State persists to config so your preferences carry across sessions.