Track: mcp-cli stderr verbosity option

[claytono]

Tracking upstream issue: philschmid/mcp-cli#17

mcp-cli currently forwards all MCP server stderr to its own stderr with no way to suppress it. This adds noise when agents use mcp-cli and consumes tokens unnecessarily.

Upstream request is for a -v or -debug flag to make stderr output opt-in.

[github-actions]

Issue Triage Report

Status: BLOCKED

Upstream Dependencies

Issue: only show STDERR with -v or -debug

• State: Open
• Created: 2026-01-19
• Last activity: 2026-01-23
• Notable: Repository owner @claytono commented on 2026-01-23 supporting the feature request. No PRs addressing this issue yet.
• Link: only show STDERR with -v or -debug philschmid/mcp-cli#17

Current State

• This repo uses mcp-cli v0.1.4 (defined in flake.nix:65)
• Upstream latest is v0.3.0 (released 2026-01-23) - does not include stderr fix
• v0.3.0 focused on subcommand architecture refactoring (PR Dependency Dashboard #19)
• No upstream PRs currently address the stderr verbosity issue

What's Needed

1. Upstream needs to implement a -v/-debug flag or environment variable to make stderr output opt-in
2. A new mcp-cli version must be released with this feature
3. Once released, Renovate should automatically create a PR to update flake.nix (or manual update needed since mcp-cli is a custom derivation)

[github-actions]

Issue Triage Report

Status: BLOCKED

Upstream Dependencies

Issue: only show STDERR with -v or -debug

• State: Open
• Created: 2026-01-19
• Last activity: 2026-01-23
• Notable: Still only 1 comment (from @claytono). No PRs or commits address this issue upstream. No new releases since v0.3.0 (2026-01-23).
• Link: only show STDERR with -v or -debug philschmid/mcp-cli#17

What Changed

• Previous status (2026-01-25): BLOCKED, repo on v0.1.4
• Now: Repo updated to 0.3.0-post (commit d77672a, latest upstream main) and includes a local workaround — a wrapper script that redirects stderr to /dev/null (flake.nix:164: exec ... 2>/dev/null)
• This workaround suppresses all stderr output, which resolves the noise problem but loses legitimate error output
• Related upstream issue #20 (env var warnings shown for all servers) is also still open

What's Needed

1. Upstream needs to implement a -v/-debug flag or environment variable to make stderr output opt-in (issue chore(deps): update pre-commit hook igorshubovych/markdownlint-cli to v0.45.0 #17)
2. A new mcp-cli version must be released with this feature
3. Once available, the local 2>/dev/null workaround in flake.nix can be replaced with proper flag usage
4. Since mcp-cli is a custom Nix derivation (not managed by Renovate), the update will need to be done manually

[github-actions]

Issue Triage Report

Status: BLOCKED

Upstream Dependencies

Issue: only show STDERR with -v or -debug

• State: Open
• Created: 2026-01-19
• Last activity: 2026-01-23
• Notable: Three open PRs now attempt to fix this (all by @haosenwang1018), but none have maintainer review yet
• Link: only show STDERR with -v or -debug philschmid/mcp-cli#17

Open PRs addressing this issue:

• #46: fix: only stream server stderr in debug/opt-in mode (opened 2026-03-11)
• #56: fix: silence server stderr unless debug is enabled (opened 2026-03-13)
• #95: fix: only show server stderr when MCP_DEBUG is set (opened 2026-03-14)

All three PRs are from the same contributor, have no reviews, and are marked as mergeable. No new upstream releases since v0.3.0 (2026-01-23).

What Changed

• Previous status (2026-02-10): BLOCKED — no PRs existed upstream, local 2>/dev/null workaround in place
• Now: Still BLOCKED, but three PRs have been opened (2026-03-11 to 2026-03-14) that would address this. None have been reviewed by the maintainer yet.

What's Needed

1. Maintainer needs to review and merge one of the open PRs (Update debian:bullseye-slim Docker digest to c2c58af #46, Update dependency yannik.relaymail to v2 #56, or formatting/extend yamllint repo wide #95)
2. A new mcp-cli release must be published with the fix
3. Once released, manually update the custom Nix derivation in flake.nix and remove the 2>/dev/null workaround

[github-actions]

Issue Triage Report

Status: BLOCKED

Upstream Dependencies

Issue: only show STDERR with -v or -debug

• State: Open
• Created: 2026-01-19
• Last activity: 2026-01-23
• Notable: Five open PRs from @haosenwang1018 now attempt to fix this (Update debian:bullseye-slim Docker digest to c2c58af #46, Update dependency yannik.relaymail to v2 #56, formatting/extend yamllint repo wide #95, Add ArgoCD management for services with existing image overrides #211, Fix Renovate qbittorrent version detection to avoid Ubuntu LTS tags #214), but none have maintainer review. No new commits to main since 2026-02-05. No releases since v0.3.0 (2026-01-23).
• Link: only show STDERR with -v or -debug philschmid/mcp-cli#17

Open PRs addressing this issue:

• #46: fix: only stream server stderr in debug/opt-in mode (opened 2026-03-11)
• #56: fix: silence server stderr unless debug is enabled (opened 2026-03-13)
• #95: fix: only show server stderr when MCP_DEBUG is set (opened 2026-03-14)
• #211: fix: silence stdio stderr by default (opened 2026-03-19)
• #214: fix: only stream server stderr in debug mode (opened 2026-03-22)

What Changed

• Previous status (2026-03-17): BLOCKED — 3 unreviewed PRs from @haosenwang1018
• Now: Still BLOCKED. Two additional PRs opened (Add ArgoCD management for services with existing image overrides #211, Fix Renovate qbittorrent version detection to avoid Ubuntu LTS tags #214) by the same contributor, still no maintainer review on any of them. Upstream repo appears low-activity — no commits to main since 2026-02-05.

What's Needed

1. Maintainer needs to review and merge one of the open PRs
2. A new mcp-cli release must be published with the fix
3. Once released, manually update the custom Nix derivation in flake.nix and remove the 2>/dev/null workaround

[github-actions]

Issue Triage Report

Status: BLOCKED

Upstream Dependencies

Issue: only show STDERR with -v or -debug

• State: Open
• Created: 2026-01-19
• Last activity: 2026-01-23
• Notable: The issue is still open. The only issue comment is from @claytono and references sirkirby/unifi-network-mcp as an example noisy MCP server; that repository now resolves to sirkirby/unifi-mcp and remains active.
• Link: only show STDERR with -v or -debug philschmid/mcp-cli#17

Related Issue: Environment variable warnings shown for all servers, not just the one being queried

• State: Open
• Created: 2026-01-27
• Last activity: 2026-01-28
• Notable: Still open with no maintainer resolution; related to noisy output behavior but not sufficient to unblock this issue by itself.
• Link: Environment variable warnings shown for all servers, not just the one being queried philschmid/mcp-cli#20

Open PRs addressing stderr verbosity

• #46: fix: only stream server stderr in debug/opt-in mode - Open; created 2026-03-11; last activity 2026-03-11; no comments or reviews
• #52: fix: gate live stderr streaming behind env vars - Open; created 2026-03-12; last activity 2026-03-12; no comments or reviews
• #56: fix: silence server stderr unless debug is enabled - Open; created 2026-03-13; last activity 2026-03-13; no comments or reviews
• #95: fix: only show server stderr when MCP_DEBUG is set - Open; created 2026-03-14; last activity 2026-03-14; no comments or reviews
• #211: fix: silence stdio stderr by default - Open; created 2026-03-19; last activity 2026-03-21; no comments or reviews
• #214: fix: only stream server stderr in debug mode - Open; created 2026-03-22; last activity 2026-03-22; no comments or reviews
• #226: fix: quiet successful server stderr - Open; created 2026-04-08; last activity 2026-04-08; no comments or reviews
• #247: fix: only show server stderr in debug mode - Open; created 2026-04-18; last activity 2026-04-18; no comments or reviews

Current State

• Upstream latest release is still v0.3.0 from 2026-01-23; gh release list and git tags show no newer release.
• Upstream main is still d77672a from 2026-02-05, which is already the commit pinned here as 0.3.0-post.
• This repo still wraps mcp-cli with 2>/dev/null in both flake.nix and kubernetes/semaphore/nix-flake.nix, suppressing all stderr rather than using a proper upstream verbosity flag.
• Renovate has no open or recently closed mcp-cli PRs; .renovaterc does not define a custom manager for mcp-cli, so this custom Nix derivation still needs manual updates.
• No newer upstream stderr, debug, or MCP_DEBUG issues were found from the last 30 days.

What's Needed

• Upstream maintainer needs to merge one of the stderr verbosity PRs or implement equivalent behavior.
• Upstream needs either a new release containing the fix, or this repo needs to intentionally pin a newer merged commit.
• After that, update the custom Nix derivation(s) and replace the local 2>/dev/null wrapper with the upstream flag/env behavior.

What Changed

• Previous triage on 2026-03-31: BLOCKED with five listed open upstream PRs (Update debian:bullseye-slim Docker digest to c2c58af #46, Update dependency yannik.relaymail to v2 #56, formatting/extend yamllint repo wide #95, Add ArgoCD management for services with existing image overrides #211, Fix Renovate qbittorrent version detection to avoid Ubuntu LTS tags #214), no maintainer review, no new release.
• Now: Still BLOCKED. Search also finds the earlier open Update dependency undergreen.prometheus-node-exporter to v1.5.1 #52 PR, plus two newer open PRs since the last triage (Rework home assistant #226 and Add labels on renovate PRs #247). All stderr-fix PRs remain unreviewed and unmerged.