Gemini CLI MCP servers: gemini mcp add and mcpServers in settings.json

gemini mcp add writes to .gemini/settings.json by default. Use -s user to write to ~/.gemini/settings.json instead.

gemini mcp add -e API_KEY=123 my-stdio-server /path/to/server arg1 arg2

gemini mcp add --transport http --header "Authorization: Bearer abc123" secure-http https://api.example.com/mcp/

gemini mcp add --transport sse sse-server https://api.example.com/sse/

• -s, --scope: user or project. Default is project.
• -t, --transport: stdio, sse or http. Default is stdio.
• -e, --env and -H, --header: set env vars and HTTP headers.
• --trust: skip all tool call confirmations for this server.
• --include-tools and --exclude-tools: comma separated tool lists.
• --timeout: connection timeout in milliseconds.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "serverName": {
      "command": "path/to/server",
      "args": ["--arg1", "value1"],
      "env": {
        "API_KEY": "$MY_API_TOKEN"
      },
      "cwd": "./server-directory",
      "timeout": 30000,
      "trust": false
    }
  }
}

• Required: one of command, url or httpUrl.
• timeout is in milliseconds. Default is 600,000 (10 minutes).
• trust defaults to false. true bypasses all confirmations for that server.
• includeTools is an allowlist. excludeTools wins if a tool is in both.
• headers sets custom HTTP headers for url or httpUrl servers.

Values in env can reference variables with $VAR or ${VAR} on all platforms, or %VAR% on Windows. The CLI redacts sensitive host variables such as *TOKEN*, *SECRET* and *KEY* from MCP processes unless you list them explicitly in env.

gemini mcp list
gemini mcp remove my-server
gemini mcp disable my-server --session
gemini mcp enable my-server

/mcp
/mcp auth
/mcp auth serverName

stdio servers only show as Connected in gemini mcp list when the current folder is trusted. Remote servers that need OAuth open a browser for sign in, so this does not work in headless or SSH sessions without a browser.