CLI
This page describes the
toolbox command-line options.Reference
| Flag (Short) | Flag (Long) | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
-a | --address | Address of the interface the server will listen on. | 127.0.0.1 |
--disable-reload | Disables dynamic reloading of tools file. | ||
-h | --help | help for toolbox | |
--log-level | Specify the minimum level logged. Allowed: ‘DEBUG’, ‘INFO’, ‘WARN’, ‘ERROR’. | info | |
--logging-format | Specify logging format to use. Allowed: ‘standard’ or ‘JSON’. | standard | |
-p | --port | Port the server will listen on. | 5000 |
--prebuilt | Use a prebuilt tool configuration by source type. Cannot be used with –tools-file. See Prebuilt Tools Reference for allowed values. | ||
--stdio | Listens via MCP STDIO instead of acting as a remote HTTP server. | ||
--telemetry-gcp | Enable exporting directly to Google Cloud Monitoring. | ||
--telemetry-otlp | Enable exporting using OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) to the specified endpoint (e.g. ‘http://127.0.0.1:4318’) | ||
--telemetry-service-name | Sets the value of the service.name resource attribute for telemetry data. | toolbox | |
--tools-file | File path specifying the tool configuration. Cannot be used with –prebuilt, –tools-files, or –tools-folder. | ||
--tools-files | Multiple file paths specifying tool configurations. Files will be merged. Cannot be used with –prebuilt, –tools-file, or –tools-folder. | ||
--tools-folder | Directory path containing YAML tool configuration files. All .yaml and .yml files in the directory will be loaded and merged. Cannot be used with –prebuilt, –tools-file, or –tools-files. | ||
--ui | Launches the Toolbox UI web server. | ||
-v | --version | version for toolbox |
Examples
Transport Configuration
Server Settings:
--address,-a: Server listening address (default: “127.0.0.1”)--port,-p: Server listening port (default: 5000)
STDIO:
--stdio: Run in MCP STDIO mode instead of HTTP server
Usage Examples
# Basic server with custom port configuration
./toolbox --tools-file "tools.yaml" --port 8080
Tool Configuration Sources
The CLI supports multiple mutually exclusive ways to specify tool configurations:
Single File: (default)
--tools-file: Path to a single YAML configuration file (default:tools.yaml)
Multiple Files:
--tools-files: Comma-separated list of YAML files to merge
Directory:
--tools-folder: Directory containing YAML files to load and merge
Prebuilt Configurations:
--prebuilt: Use predefined configurations for specific database types (e.g., ‘bigquery’, ‘postgres’, ‘spanner’). See Prebuilt Tools Reference for allowed values.
Tip
The CLI enforces mutual exclusivity between configuration source flags, preventing simultaneous use of --prebuilt with file-based options, and ensuring only one of --tools-file, --tools-files, or --tools-folder is used at a time.
Hot Reload
Toolbox enables dynamic reloading by default. To disable, use the
--disable-reload flag.
Toolbox UI
To launch Toolbox’s interactive UI, use the --ui flag. This allows you to test tools and toolsets with features such as authorized parameters. To learn more, visit Toolbox UI.