Apps

Apps

One place to give your agents more tools: MCP servers, CLI tools and skills. Everything you add is available to every agent on this computer, and the session you added it from uses it right away, with no restart.

Open Apps

  • Browser UI: the Apps button in the sidebar, above Settings.
  • Terminal: /apps.

What You Can Add

KindWhat Add doesWhere it lands
MCP serverSaves the server and connects it to the current session.~/.kollab/mcp/mcp_settings.json
CLI toolInstalls it with a package manager you already have: brew, npm, uv or pipx.Your PATH
SkillDownloads it from its GitHub repo into the skill library.~/.kollab/skills/<name>/

Keys and Logins

  • An MCP server that needs a key, such as a GitHub token, asks for it before it is saved.
  • In the terminal, /apps add saves such a server turned off and tells you to set the key with /mcp setup, so a secret never goes through a slash command.
  • A CLI tool that needs a login, such as gh auth login, tells you the command to run in your own terminal after it installs.
  • A skill that drives a CLI tool installs the tool first. Adding the OfficeCLI Word, Excel or PowerPoint skill installs OfficeCLI, then the skill.

Terminal Commands

/apps                              # a few of each kind, and how many more there are
/apps search <words>               # every match, by name, description or tag
/apps add <id>                     # e.g. /apps add context7, /apps add cli:gh
/apps add registry:<name>          # show what an MCP Registry server runs, and its code
/apps add registry:<name> <code>   # add exactly that
/apps remove <id>                  # remove an MCP server or a skill added from Apps

Ids are <kind>:<id>, such as mcp:github, cli:gh and skill:pdf. The bare id works when only one kind uses it.

The MCP Registry

The directory is a curated list. Type two or more letters in the search and Apps also searches the official MCP Registry (about 40,000 servers) and lists its matches under MCP Registry, after the directory's own. Kollab has not reviewed these servers, so Apps is careful with them:

  • Add first shows the exact command it will run and the settings it needs. Nothing is saved or started until you press Add there. If the registry entry changed in the meantime, Add refuses and shows the new command.
  • A hosted server runs through mcp-remote, so only that bridge runs on your computer. A package runs the publisher's code with npx, uvx or docker run.
  • Apps won't add a server it can't run safely, and its row says why: a secret on a command line, a header or address that would read this computer's environment or paths, a setting such as NODE_OPTIONS that changes what gets installed, or a docker flag that reaches past the container.
  • An added registry server is listed under MCP Servers with a Registry badge. Remove and Turn On work like any other server.

The registry is sometimes slow: a search takes from under a second to about 30 seconds, and its results are kept for 10 minutes. In the terminal, /apps search waits up to 10 seconds; a slower search keeps going, so the same search a moment later answers at once.

Button States

  • Added: installed. An MCP server is saved and on, a CLI tool is on your PATH, a skill is in the library.
  • Turn On: an MCP server that is saved but off.
  • Add: available.
  • Add (disabled): something it needs is missing, such as npx for a Node server.

Skills that ship with Kollab are listed under Built-in Skills and are always there. Skills you wrote yourself, in ~/.kollab/skills or a project's .kollab/skills, are listed under Your Skills. Apps never deletes either. Remove only deletes a skill folder that Apps downloaded, or an MCP server Apps added; a server you set up by hand under the same name keeps its config.

Add Your Own Entries

Put extra entries in ~/.kollab/apps.json with the same shape as the catalog that ships with Kollab. An entry with the same kind and id replaces the bundled one.

Next Steps