Unified (@ask-llm/mcp)

@ask-llm/mcp default per provider

All providers in one MCP server. Auto-detects which CLIs are installed and registers only the available tools. One install, all providers.

Best for: installing once and letting the orchestrator route each request to whatever provider you have, or fanning the same prompt out to several at once. The recommended starting point. Not for: nothing in particular; if you're unsure which provider to install, start here.

Installation

1. Provider CLI

# no extra CLI: auto-detects the provider CLIs you already have

2. Register the MCP server (Claude Code shown; see Quick Start for other clients)

claude mcp add --scope user ask-llm -- npx -y @ask-llm/mcp

Or install globally: npm install -g @ask-llm/mcp

Prerequisites

1. Node.js v20.0.0 or higher
2. At least one provider installed and authenticated:
   • Gemini CLI for ask-gemini tools
   • Codex CLI for ask-codex tools
   • Claude Code CLI for Codex and other non-Claude hosts to consult Claude
   • Ollama running locally for ask-ollama tools

How It Works

On startup, the unified server:

1. Checks for CLI availability (Gemini, Codex, Claude, Antigravity)
2. Checks for HTTP availability via health endpoints (Ollama)
3. Dynamically imports and registers tools from available providers
4. Exposes only the tools for providers that are actually installed

Tools

The orchestrator exposes a single ask-llm tool (not one per provider), so the same tool surface is registered whenever any provider is installed:

Tool	Purpose
ask-llm	Single unified tool; picks the provider via provider parameter (gemini, codex, claude, ollama, antigravity). For Codex continuity, pass sessionId: "" first, then resume with the returned ID
multi-llm	Dispatch the same prompt to multiple providers in parallel; returns per-provider responses + usage in one call
get-usage-stats	Per-session token totals + breakdowns by provider/model; in-memory, no persistence
diagnose	Self-diagnosis: Node version, PATH, provider CLI presence + versions. Read-only
ping	Connection test

The orchestrator uses a single ask-llm tool (not one per provider) for token efficiency. All ask-* tools return both human-readable text and a structured AskResponse (provider, response, model, sessionId, usage) via MCP outputSchema.

Codex calls are ephemeral when sessionId is omitted. To create a resumable Codex conversation, pass sessionId: "" on the first ask-llm call and pass its returned Thread ID on follow-ups.

It also exposes usage://current-session as an MCP Resource for live JSON snapshots of token spend.

Parallel dispatch

multi-llm fans one prompt out to every requested provider at once, running them concurrently and collecting each response with per-provider failure isolation.

multi-llm dispatches the same prompt in parallel. A provider failing or hitting quota does not fail the others.

CLI Subcommands

The @ask-llm/mcp binary supports two CLI modes alongside the default MCP server:

npx @ask-llm/mcp repl     # interactive multi-provider REPL with sessions, usage tracking, slash commands
npx @ask-llm/mcp doctor   # diagnose Node version, PATH, provider CLIs, env vars (--json for machine output)

Key Features

• Single server for all providers
• Auto-detection of installed CLIs
• Host-aware Claude routing: Claude is available to Codex and other clients, but suppressed when the host is Claude Code because nested Claude sessions are unsupported
• Single unified ask-llm tool for token efficiency
• Multi-provider parallel dispatch via multi-llm (Promise.all internally; per-provider failure isolation)
• Session continuity across four session-capable providers: Claude/Gemini (--resume), Codex (exec resume), Ollama (server-side replay); Antigravity is single-turn
• Graceful degradation if a provider is unavailable

npm

• Package: @ask-llm/mcp
• Binary: ask-llm-mcp