Skip to main content
Global options can be used with any CLI command and control logging, configuration, and storage behavior.

​
Logging Options

​
--verbose
boolean
default:"false"
Enable verbose (debug) logging. Shows detailed operational information including:
  • Configuration loading
  • Service initialization
  • API requests and responses
  • Internal state changes
Mutually exclusive with --silent.Example:
docs-mcp-server --verbose scrape react https://react.dev
​
--silent
boolean
default:"false"
Disable all logging except errors. Useful for:
  • Running in cron jobs
  • Piping output to other commands
  • Minimal console output
Mutually exclusive with --verbose.Example:
docs-mcp-server --silent list > libraries.json

​
Log Levels

The logging system has four levels:
  1. ERROR (always shown)
    • Critical failures
    • Configuration errors
    • Unrecoverable issues
  2. WARN (default)
    • Recoverable issues
    • Deprecated features
    • Configuration warnings
  3. INFO (default)
    • Startup messages
    • Command completion
    • Status updates
  4. DEBUG (requires --verbose)
    • Service initialization
    • Request details
    • Internal operations
Examples: 
# Default: INFO and above
docs-mcp-server list

# Verbose: All levels
docs-mcp-server --verbose list

# Silent: ERROR only
docs-mcp-server --silent list

​
Configuration Options

​
--config
string
Path to configuration file. Supports YAML and JSON formats.When specified:
  • The configuration file is loaded in read-only mode
  • config set commands will fail
  • Useful for shared or versioned configurations
When omitted:
  • Uses the default system configuration path
  • Configuration can be modified via config set
  • Auto-saves changes on updates
Default locations:
  • Linux: ~/.config/docs-mcp-server/config.yaml
  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/docs-mcp-server/config.yaml
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\docs-mcp-server\config.yaml
Examples:
# Use custom config file
docs-mcp-server --config /path/to/config.yaml scrape mylib https://example.com

# Use config from environment variable
export DOCS_MCP_CONFIG=/etc/docs-mcp/config.yaml
docs-mcp-server scrape mylib https://example.com

​
Storage Options

​
--store-path
string
Custom path for data storage directory. Stores:
  • SQLite database
  • Vector embeddings
  • Indexed documents
  • ETag cache
  • Analytics data (if telemetry enabled)
Default locations:
  • Linux: ~/.local/share/docs-mcp-server
  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/docs-mcp-server
  • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\docs-mcp-server
The directory structure:
store-path/
├── docs.db           # SQLite database
├── embeddings/       # Vector storage
└── analytics/        # Telemetry data
Examples:
# Use custom storage path
docs-mcp-server --store-path /mnt/data/docs scrape react https://react.dev

# Use environment variable
export DOCS_MCP_STORE_PATH=/mnt/data/docs
docs-mcp-server scrape react https://react.dev

# Docker with volume mount
docker run -v /host/data:/data \
  ghcr.io/arabold/docs-mcp-server \
  --store-path /data \
  scrape react https://react.dev

​
Telemetry Options

​
--telemetry
boolean
Enable or disable telemetry collection. Telemetry helps improve the tool by collecting:
  • Command usage statistics
  • Error reports
  • Performance metrics
No personal data or documentation content is collected.To disable telemetry:
# Via flag
docs-mcp-server --no-telemetry scrape mylib https://example.com

# Via environment variable (persistent)
export DOCS_MCP_TELEMETRY=false
docs-mcp-server scrape mylib https://example.com

# Via config file (persistent)
docs-mcp-server config set app.telemetryEnabled false
To enable telemetry:
# Via flag
docs-mcp-server --telemetry scrape mylib https://example.com

# Via environment variable
export DOCS_MCP_TELEMETRY=true

# Via config file
docs-mcp-server config set app.telemetryEnabled true

​
Display Options

Show ASCII art logo on startup. Applies to server commands:
  • Default command (unified server)
  • mcp command
  • web command
  • worker command
To disable:
docs-mcp-server --no-logo

​
Help and Version

​
--help, -h
boolean
Display help information for a command.Examples:
# General help
docs-mcp-server --help

# Command-specific help
docs-mcp-server scrape --help
docs-mcp-server config --help
​
--version
boolean
Display version information.Example:
docs-mcp-server --version
# Output: 1.2.3

​
Option Precedence

When the same setting is specified in multiple ways, the precedence order is:
  1. CLI flags (highest priority)
  2. Environment variables
  3. Configuration file
  4. Built-in defaults (lowest priority)
Example: 
# config.yaml has: telemetryEnabled: true
# Environment has: DOCS_MCP_TELEMETRY=false
# CLI flag: --telemetry

docs-mcp-server --telemetry list
# Result: telemetry ENABLED (CLI flag wins)

export DOCS_MCP_TELEMETRY=false
docs-mcp-server list
# Result: telemetry DISABLED (env var wins over config file)

​
Combining Options

Global options can be combined with any command: 
# Multiple global options
docs-mcp-server --verbose --no-telemetry --store-path /data scrape react https://react.dev

# With command-specific options
docs-mcp-server --verbose scrape react https://react.dev --max-pages 500

# Order doesn't matter (global options before or after command)
docs-mcp-server scrape --verbose react https://react.dev

​
Common Patterns

​
Development Setup

# Verbose logging, no logo, custom storage
docs-mcp-server --verbose --no-logo --store-path ./dev-data scrape mylib https://example.com

​
Production Setup

# Silent mode, shared config, persistent storage
docs-mcp-server --silent --config /etc/docs-mcp/config.yaml --store-path /var/lib/docs-mcp

​
CI/CD Pipeline

# Disable telemetry, silent output, custom storage
docs-mcp-server --no-telemetry --silent --store-path /tmp/docs list > libraries.json

​
Docker Container

# Mount volumes for config and data
docker run \
  -v /host/config:/config \
  -v /host/data:/data \
  ghcr.io/arabold/docs-mcp-server \
  --config /config/config.yaml \
  --store-path /data \
  scrape mylib https://example.com

​
Error Handling

Mutually Exclusive Options 
docs-mcp-server --verbose --silent list
# ❌ Arguments verbose and silent are mutually exclusive
Invalid Paths 
docs-mcp-server --config /nonexistent/config.yaml list
# ⚠️ Config file not found, using defaults

docs-mcp-server --store-path /readonly/dir scrape mylib https://example.com
# ❌ Cannot write to storage directory: Permission denied

​
See Also

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us