LightNow CLI

The LightNow CLI connects your local MCP clients with LightNow.

Use it to sign in, discover MCP servers, configure local AI clients such as Codex, Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code and Google Antigravity, and keep MCP server configuration and secrets managed by LightNow.

Install

Requirements for Python-based installs:

• Python 3.11 or higher
• pipx
• a LightNow account

Install the CLI with Homebrew:

brew tap lightnow-ai/tap
brew install lightnow-cli

Install the CLI with pipx:

pipx install lightnow-cli

Or install it with uv:

uv tool install lightnow-cli

If you prefer installing directly from the public repository:

pipx install git+https://github.com/lightnow-ai/lightnow-cli.git

Sign In

lightnow login

The CLI opens a browser window for LightNow authentication. After sign-in, check your session with:

lightnow status

Find MCP Servers

Search the LightNow Registry:

lightnow search sonarqube

Show details for one server:

lightnow info io.github.SonarSource/sonarqube-mcp-server

Show your favorites:

lightnow favorites

Configure an MCP Client

The recommended setup is Local Proxy mode: your MCP client gets one LightNow entry and the local proxy resolves the configured MCP servers and secrets at runtime.

Install the Local Proxy executable first with Homebrew:

brew tap lightnow-ai/tap
brew install lightnow-proxy

Or install it with pipx:

pipx install lightnow-proxy

Or install it with uv:

uv tool install lightnow-proxy

The proxy package installs the lightnow-proxy command used in MCP client configs.

For local development from a checkout:

uv tool install --from /path/to/lightnow-proxy lightnow-proxy

Then sync your client:

lightnow sync --client codex --local-proxy

Other common clients:

lightnow sync --client claude-desktop --local-proxy
lightnow sync --client antigravity --local-proxy
lightnow sync --client cursor --local-proxy
lightnow sync --client vscode --local-proxy

Let LightNow choose the configured organization policy for a client:

lightnow sync --client codex --from-settings

When LightNow Config blocks unmanaged MCP servers, managed clients keep only the LightNow entry. When unmanaged servers are allowed, existing user-managed MCP entries stay in the client config and config-status reports mixed.

Check whether a client is configured as expected:

lightnow config-status --client codex
lightnow config-status --client claude-desktop --json
lightnow config-status --client cursor --json
lightnow config-status --client vscode --json

For details, examples, diagrams and troubleshooting, see Connect MCP clients.

Direct Sync

Sync your default LightNow runtime profile into Codex:

lightnow sync --client codex

Preview changes before writing:

lightnow sync --client codex --dry-run

Use runner mode when you do not want secrets written into client configuration files:

lightnow sync --client codex --runner

For daemon-style local testing, --local-proxy-transport http writes a localhost Streamable HTTP entry instead of a stdio auto-start entry.

Note: Google has moved individual Gemini CLI users to Antigravity. LightNow keeps gemini-cli support for Enterprise/API-key environments, but antigravity is the recommended Google local client target for individuals.

Run One Server

Run a configured MCP server through LightNow:

lightnow run --profile default --server sonarqube

More Documentation

• CLI usage guide
• CLI reference
• Local development
• Release process
• Security policy
• Contributing

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.