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An MCP server is a program that gives Mochiii extra tools. This page covers adding one that runs on your computer, from the terminal app.
An MCP server you add runs as an ordinary program with your full privileges. Mochiii cannot confine it. Only add a server whose program you trust.

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Add a server

Inside the Mochiii chat, type /mcp-server add, then a name you choose, then the command that starts the server:
Use a full path for the folder. Mochiii splits the line into words itself, with quotes keeping a path that has spaces together. It does not run a shell. Mochiii does not add the server yet. It shows what you are agreeing to: the exact command, that it runs with your full privileges, which environment variables it is given, and where it starts. To go on, type the server’s name, here files, and press Enter. Anything else, or Esc, cancels, and nothing is stored. If you cancel by typing something else, Mochiii puts what you typed back in the input box. Clear it before you type your next command. Mochiii then starts the server once and asks it for its tools. It tells you how many it offers. They are available from your next question, and each tool asks before it runs. The first start can be slow, for example while npx downloads the server. If the server does not start in time, Mochiii says so and keeps it. Run /mcp-server check files to try again. Add --timeout 60 to wait longer.

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Give a server a key

Some servers read a key from an environment variable. Name the variable when you add the server, with --env:
--env takes the variable’s name. Do not type the value on that line. Mochiii refuses a line like --env GITHUB_TOKEN=abc or GITHUB_TOKEN=abc npx ..., because the command line is stored and shown. Until the variable has a value, the server starts without it, and Mochiii says so when you add the server. Give the value with /mcp-server key:
Mochiii then asks for the value in a hidden prompt. Type or paste it and press Enter. Esc cancels. The server uses the value from its next start. The variable must be one the server was added with --env. If it is not, Mochiii still asks for a value, then refuses it and stores nothing. To add a variable, remove the server and add it again with --env. When a server starts, it uses the value you stored with /mcp-server key <name> <VARIABLE>. If there is none, it uses the variable from the environment Mochiii’s background service was started with. To use that route, run mochiii --stop, export the variable, then start Mochiii. A service that is already running does not see a variable you export after it started. Mochiii does not read .env files.

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Look at your servers

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How many tools the model sees

The model is shown at most 24 tools at a time. Mochiii’s own tools come first. For the rest, each question gets the tools that fit it best, and the model looks up the others when a task needs them. When you add a server that has more tools than fit, Mochiii tells you how many are not on the default list, and names them. /mcp-server lists them too.

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Where things are kept

None of these files is in your project. A project cannot start a server by itself. Its .mcp.json file can only propose one. /mcp-server shows a proposed server as pending, and it does not start, not even for /mcp-server check, until you approve it with /mcp-server approve name. Approving shows the same warning as adding, and you type the server’s name to go on. The approval is for that exact definition in that folder: if the project changes it, you are asked again. A server you add starts in a private folder of its own, not in your project. If a server has to start inside the project, add it with --in-project:
Mochiii then warns that a project you open can change what a launcher such as npx runs. If a server only needs the project’s files, give it the project’s path as an argument instead.