MCP — Model Context Protocol

Bahulam includes a full Model Context Protocol client. Any MCP server you add appears as first-class tools inside the agent loop — same permission model, same approval flow, same tool telemetry.

Four transports supported:

Transport	When to use	Config trigger
stdio	Local subprocess (most public MCP servers today)	`command` field
SSE (Server-Sent Events)	Legacy remote MCP servers over HTTP	`url` containing `/sse`
WebSocket	Bidirectional streaming remote servers	`ws://` or `wss://` URL
Streamable HTTP	Newer MCP HTTP transport (POST + SSE response)	`url` without `/sse`

Auto-detected from the shape of your server config.

Add a server

Edit ~/.bahulam/config.json and add an entry under mcpServers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "/Users/you/projects"]
    },
    "postgres": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres"],
      "env": {
        "DATABASE_URL": "postgresql://localhost/mydb"
      }
    },
    "context7-remote": {
      "url": "https://mcp.context7.com/sse"
    }
  }
}

Bahulam picks up config changes on the next session start. The agent sees the server’s tools listed alongside built-in tools; permission model is identical (HITL prompts for writes, auto-approve for reads).

Protocol version

Bahulam pins MCP protocol version 2024-11-05. Newer servers should still work as long as they support this baseline — if a server rejects the handshake, upgrade the server or file a bug on Bahulam to advance the pinned version.

Debugging

Set MCP_DEBUG=1 in your environment for verbose transport logging:

MCP_DEBUG=1 bahulam

You’ll see the JSON-RPC frames going both directions, plus timing per request. Useful when a remote server hangs the handshake or returns errors the CLI swallows.

Tools exposed

For each connected server, its declared MCP tools appear in the tool registry as <server-name>.<tool-name>. The agent picks them up automatically — no per-tool wiring.

Bahulam also ships one built-in MCP-native tool:

ReadMcpResource — reads any resource by URI (file://..., mcp://server/resource, etc.) across all connected servers.

Popular servers to try

Server	What it does
`@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem`	File operations on a scoped root
`@modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres`	Query and inspect Postgres
`@modelcontextprotocol/server-github`	GitHub API — issues, PRs, code search
`@modelcontextprotocol/server-brave-search`	Web search via Brave
`@modelcontextprotocol/server-slack`	Read/post Slack messages
`@modelcontextprotocol/server-google-drive`	Read Google Drive files

Full catalog: modelcontextprotocol.io/servers.

Security notes

Every MCP tool call goes through the same HITL approval flow as a built-in write tool. Nothing hits your database or GitHub without a prompt (unless you’ve explicitly auto-approved it via /settings).
Environment variables passed to stdio servers (via env) inherit from the CLI process. Don’t put secrets in ~/.bahulam/config.json in plain text — use env vars in your shell and reference them (see Settings for the pattern).
Remote MCP servers see your prompts and tool arguments. Trust them the way you’d trust any third-party API you send data to.

Remote Sessions Getting Good Results