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Agents can only use your CLI if they know it exists. incur solves this with three built-in discovery mechanisms—no manual config, no copy-pasting tool definitions.

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Three Discovery Mechanisms

incur provides three ways for agents to discover and use your CLI:
  1. Skills (recommended – lighter on tokens)
  2. MCP server (Model Context Protocol)
  3. --llms flag for direct manifest inspection

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Skills

Skills provide the most token-efficient discovery mechanism. They load command metadata on-demand rather than injecting everything at session start.

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Add Skills

my-cli skills add
This command:
  • Auto-generates skill files from your commands
  • Installs them to the agent’s skills directory
  • Splits by command group for on-demand loading

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How It Works

Skills use a two-phase loading strategy: Session start — Only frontmatter (name + description) is loaded On demand — Full command details load when the agent needs them This approach uses up to 29.7× fewer tokens during discovery compared to loading a monolithic skill file.

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Agent Quickprompt

Tell your agent: 
Run `npx incur skills add`, then show me how to build CLIs with incur.

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MCP Server

Register your CLI as an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server so agents can invoke commands as tools.

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Add MCP

my-cli mcp add
This registers your CLI with supported agents:
  • Claude Code
  • Cursor
  • Windsurf
  • Amp
  • Cline
  • And more

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MCP Quickprompt

Tell your agent: 
Run `npx incur mcp add`, then show me how to build CLIs with incur.

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MCP vs Skills

MCP injects all tool schemas into every turn, making it heavier on tokens: 
┌─────────────────┬────────────┬─────────┬───────────────┐
│                 │ MCP + JSON │   incur │ vs. incur     │
├─────────────────┼────────────┼─────────┼───────────────┤
│ Session start   │      6,747 │     805 │         ↓8.4× │
│ Discovery       │          0 │     387 │        ↓29.7× │
│ Invocation (×5) │        110 │      65 │         ↓1.7× │
│ Response (×5)   │     10,940 │   5,790 │         ↓1.9× │
├─────────────────┼────────────┼─────────┼───────────────┤
│ Cost            │    $0.0325 │ $0.0131 │         ↓3.1× │
└─────────────────┴────────────┴─────────┴───────────────┘
Skills are recommended for most use cases due to significantly lower token usage.

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LLMs Flag

Output a machine-readable manifest of all commands for direct inspection or custom integrations.

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Markdown Format

my-cli --llms
Outputs a token-efficient Markdown manifest: 
# my-cli

## install

Install a package

**Usage:** `my-cli install [package]`

**Arguments:**
- `package` (string, optional) – Package name

**Options:**
- `--saveDev` (boolean) – Save as dev dependency

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JSON Schema Format

my-cli --llms json
Outputs JSON Schema for programmatic consumption: 
{
  "tools": [
    {
      "name": "install",
      "description": "Install a package",
      "inputSchema": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "package": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "Package name"
          },
          "saveDev": {
            "type": "boolean",
            "description": "Save as dev dependency"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

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Implementation

All discovery mechanisms are automatically available on every incur CLI: 
import { Cli, z } from 'incur'

Cli.create('my-cli', {
  description: 'My CLI',
})
  .command('status', {
    description: 'Show repo status',
    run() {
      return { clean: true }
    },
  })
  .serve()
No additional configuration needed. Every CLI gets:
  • my-cli skills add
  • my-cli mcp add
  • my-cli --llms
  • my-cli --llms json

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Session Savings

Combining on-demand skill loading with TOON output, incur cuts token usage across the entire session—from discovery through invocation and response. In a typical session with a 20-command CLI:
  • 3.1× lower cost vs MCP + JSON
  • 3.1× lower cost vs monolithic skill + JSON
  • 8.4× fewer tokens at session start vs MCP
  • 29.7× fewer tokens during discovery vs monolithic skill
Use my-cli skills add for the best token efficiency and agent experience.

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