tota supports Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. Any MCP server that speaks HTTP JSON-RPC can be connected, and its tools will appear in the agent automatically.

How it works

On startup, tota calls tools/list on each configured server. The returned tools are registered with the prefix mcp_<server>_<tool>. When the agent calls one, tota forwards the request to the server via tools/call and returns the result.

Configuration

Add servers to ~/.tota/tota.yaml:

mcp:
  servers:
    - name: filesystem
      url: http://localhost:8080/mcp
      enabled: true

    - name: my-db
      url: http://localhost:9090/mcp
      apiKey: secret-token
      enabled: true

Tool naming

Tools from the server appear as:

mcp_<name>_<tool>

For example, a server named filesystem with a tool read_file appears as mcp_filesystem_read_file.

Protocol requirements

Your MCP server must handle:

• POST <url> with { "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1, "method": "tools/list", "params": {} }
  • Returns { "result": { "tools": [ { "name", "description", "inputSchema" } ] } }
• POST <url> with { "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 2, "method": "tools/call", "params": { "name", "arguments": {} } }
  • Returns { "result": { "content": [ { "type": "text", "text": "..." } ] } }

Error handling

If a server is unreachable or returns an error at startup, tota logs a warning and continues without that server's tools. Individual tool-call failures are returned as error strings to the agent.

Example: Running a local MCP server

# Install a community MCP server
npm install -g @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem

# Start it
mcp-server-filesystem --port 8080

# Add to tota config
echo "
mcp:
  servers:
    - name: fs
      url: http://localhost:8080/mcp
      enabled: true
" >> ~/.tota/tota.yaml

# Restart tota
tota restart

The tool mcp_fs_read_file will now be available to the agent.