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Interfaces: headless, TUI, and MCP

smb presents through one of three interfaces, chosen at runtime. The default is headless — plain, line-based text that works the same in a terminal, a pipe, or a script. Two global flags switch interface:

Flag Interface What it does
(none) Headless (default) Plain-text output. Interactive prompts still appear on a TTY unless --ci is set. No full-screen takeover.
--tui TUI Full-screen interactive views (ratatui) for the read commands.
--mcp MCP Runs as a Model Context Protocol server over stdio instead of a one-shot command. Implies non-interactive.

--tui and --mcp are mutually exclusive. The --ci flag is orthogonal: it forces non-interactive behavior (see CI / non-interactive deploys) and applies to the headless interface; --mcp is always non-interactive regardless of --ci.

Headless (default)

The default interface prints plain text and never seizes the terminal, so it is safe to pipe or redirect:

smb me                            # plain key/value account block
smb project list                  # plain table
smb project show --id <id>        # plain detail block
smb project deployment            # plain table (or detail with --id <id>)

On a real terminal, commands that need input still prompt (project setup, a monorepo target picker, delete confirmations). Add --ci — or run under CI — to turn those prompts off and fail fast instead of blocking.

TUI (--tui)

--tui renders the read commands as full-screen interactive views. Press q / Esc to leave a view and return to the shell.

smb --tui me
smb --tui project list
smb --tui project show --id <id>
smb --tui project deployment

Destructive confirmations (e.g. project delete) show a full-screen danger dialog under --tui; in the headless interface they ask inline instead.

MCP (--mcp)

smb --mcp starts an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that speaks JSON-RPC over stdio. Instead of running a single command and exiting, it stays up and exposes smbCloud operations — 30 tools spanning accounts, projects, tenants, Mail, and Auth — as MCP tools that an MCP-capable client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, or any other assistant/agent) can call. The subcommand is ignored in this mode.

Authentication uses the token stored by smb login, so log in once before starting the server. Tools run non-interactively and return structured JSON — including the *_delete tools, which apply immediately with no confirmation prompt.

For the client setup guide and the full tool reference, see MCP Server.