---
title: thv mcp serve
hide_title: true
description: Reference for ToolHive CLI command `thv mcp serve`
last_update:
  author: autogenerated
slug: thv_mcp_serve
mdx:
  format: md
---

## thv mcp serve

🧪 EXPERIMENTAL: Start an MCP server to control ToolHive

### Synopsis

🧪 EXPERIMENTAL: Start an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that allows external clients to control ToolHive.
The server provides tools to search the registry, run MCP servers, and remove servers.
The server runs in privileged mode and can access the Docker socket directly.

The port can be configured via the --port flag or the MCP_PORT environment variable.

```
thv mcp serve [flags]
```

### Options

```
  -h, --help          help for serve
      --host string   Host to listen on (default "localhost")
      --port string   Port to listen on (can also be set via MCP_PORT env var) (default "4483")
```

### Options inherited from parent commands

```
      --debug   Enable debug mode
```

### SEE ALSO

* [thv mcp](thv_mcp.md)	 - Interact with MCP servers for debugging

