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CLI reference

The lcp command-line tool is installed by pip install lcp. All subcommands accept --help for inline documentation.

lcp --version
lcp <command> --help

lcp scan

Introspect an installed Python package and emit an LCP manifest.

lcp scan PACKAGE [OPTIONS]
Flag Default Description
PACKAGE — Importable package name (e.g. requests).
-o, --output PATH stdout Output file path.
--include-private off Include private symbols (starting with _).
--no-recursive off Don't scan submodules recursively.
--validate / --no-validate on Validate output against LCP schema.
--indent INTEGER 2 JSON indentation level.
--coverage PATH — Also generate a documentation coverage report to this path.

Example:

lcp scan requests -o requests.lcp.json
lcp scan numpy --include-private

lcp validate

Validate an LCP JSON file against the LCP schema.

lcp validate FILE
Flag Default Description
FILE — Path to an LCP JSON file to validate.

Example:

lcp validate requests.lcp.json

lcp serve

Start an MCP server (stdio transport) for a single LCP manifest file, exposing tools for exploring and querying the library's API.

lcp serve MANIFEST [OPTIONS]
Flag Default Description
MANIFEST — Path to an LCP JSON file to serve.
--name TEXT lcp-{library-name} Server name for MCP identification.

Example:

lcp serve requests.lcp.json
lcp serve numpy.lcp.json --name numpy-docs

lcp serve-all

Start a universal MCP server that resolves any installed Python library on the fly. Unlike lcp serve, no pre-built manifest is required — AI agents call the resolve_library tool to load any pip-installed package. Manifests are cached locally and, when local scanning fails, can be fetched from a remote LCP registry.

Resolution order: local cache → live scan → registry fetch.

lcp serve-all [OPTIONS]
Flag Default Description
--cache-dir PATH ~/.lcp/cache/ Cache directory for LCP manifests.
--name TEXT lcp-universal Server name for MCP identification.
--no-cache off Disable reading from and writing to the local cache.
--registry TEXT — Base URL of an LCP registry used as fallback when local scanning fails. Manifests are fetched from {registry}/manifests/{language}/{name}/{version}.lcp.json.

Example:

lcp serve-all
lcp serve-all --registry https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zazza123/lcp-registry/refs/heads/main

lcp coverage

Generate a documentation coverage report for a Python package, showing which symbols are missing docstrings.

lcp coverage PACKAGE [OPTIONS]
Flag Default Description
PACKAGE — Importable package name to analyze.
-o, --output PATH stdout Output file path.
--format [json\|markdown] json Output format.
--include-private off Include private symbols (starting with _).
--no-recursive off Don't scan submodules recursively.

Example:

lcp coverage requests -o coverage.json
lcp coverage numpy -o coverage.md --format markdown

lcp publish

Publish an LCP manifest to the registry by opening a GitHub Pull Request. The command scans the package (or uses an existing manifest via --file), validates it, then submits the PR to the registry repository.

lcp publish PACKAGE [OPTIONS]
Flag Default Description
PACKAGE — Importable package name to publish.
--token TEXT — GitHub personal access token with repo or public_repo scope. Can also be set via LCP_GITHUB_TOKEN or GITHUB_TOKEN env var.
--registry-repo TEXT zazza123/lcp-registry Target registry repository in owner/name format.
--file PATH — Use an existing LCP JSON file instead of scanning the package.
--include-private off Include private symbols when scanning (starting with _).
--no-recursive off Don't scan submodules recursively.
--dry-run off Generate the manifest and show what would be submitted without creating a PR.

Example:

lcp publish requests --token ghp_xxxx
lcp publish numpy --dry-run
lcp publish mylib --file mylib.lcp.json --token ghp_xxxx

lcp diff

Compare two LCP files and detect deprecated symbols. Symbols present in the older file but missing in the newer file are reported as removed. The output includes generated deprecation entries that can be merged into the new manifest.

lcp diff OLD NEW [OPTIONS]
Flag Default Description
OLD — Path to the earlier LCP JSON file.
NEW — Path to the later LCP JSON file.
-o, --output PATH stdout Output file path.
--indent INTEGER 2 JSON indentation level.
--update off Write detected deprecations back into the NEW LCP file.

Example:

lcp diff v1.lcp.json v2.lcp.json
lcp diff v1.lcp.json v2.lcp.json -o diff.json --update

See also