genai-toolbox/docs/en/reference/cli.md

title, type, weight, description

title	type	weight	description
CLI	docs	1	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 one or more prebuilt tool configuration by source type. 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 --tools-files or --tools-folder.
	--tools-files	Multiple file paths specifying tool configurations. Files will be merged. Cannot be used with --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 --tools-file or --tools-files.
	--ui	Launches the Toolbox UI web server.
	--allowed-origins	Specifies a list of origins permitted to access this server for CORs access.	*
	--allowed-hosts	Specifies a list of hosts permitted to access this server to prevent DNS rebinding attacks.	*
	--user-agent-metadata	Appends additional metadata to the User-Agent.
-v	--version	version for toolbox

Sub Commands

invoke

Executes a tool directly with the provided parameters. This is useful for testing tool configurations and parameters without needing a full client setup.

Syntax:

toolbox invoke <tool-name> [params]

Arguments:

• tool-name: The name of the tool to execute (as defined in your configuration).
• params: (Optional) A JSON string containing the parameters for the tool.

For more detailed instructions, see Invoke Tools via CLI.

skills-generate

Generates a skill package from a specified toolset. Each tool in the toolset will have a corresponding Node.js execution script in the generated skill.

Syntax:

toolbox skills-generate --name <name> --description <description> --toolset <toolset> --output-dir <output>

Flags:

• --name: Name of the generated skill.
• --description: Description of the generated skill.
• --toolset: (Optional) Name of the toolset to convert into a skill. If not provided, all tools will be included.
• --output-dir: (Optional) Directory to output generated skills (default: "skills").

For more detailed instructions, see Generate Agent Skills.

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

# Server with prebuilt + custom tools configurations
./toolbox --tools-file tools.yaml --prebuilt alloydb-postgres

# Server with multiple prebuilt tools configurations
./toolbox --prebuilt alloydb-postgres,alloydb-postgres-admin
# OR
./toolbox --prebuilt alloydb-postgres --prebuilt alloydb-postgres-admin

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 one or more predefined configurations for specific database types (e.g., 'bigquery', 'postgres', 'spanner'). See Prebuilt Tools Reference for allowed values.

{{< notice tip >}} The CLI enforces mutual exclusivity between configuration source flags, preventing simultaneous use of the file-based options ensuring only one of --tools-file, --tools-files, or --tools-folder is used at a time. {{< /notice >}}

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.