Warp CLI > Context & customization

Agent context in the {{WARP_CLI}}: rules, skills, and MCP

Give the {{WARP_CLI}} agent context with project rules (AGENTS.md), skills, and MCP servers.

The Warp CLI gives its agent the same layered context system as the Warp app: your working directory, project rules, skills, and MCP servers. All of it follows the directory you’re working in, so the agent’s knowledge stays scoped to the project at hand.

Project context and rules

Every conversation includes the session’s current working directory as context. The Warp CLI starts in the directory where you ran warp, and when you cd inside the session, project rules and skills re-scope to the new directory automatically.

Within a project, the Warp CLI picks up the same rule files as the Warp app:

Project rules - AGENTS.md (or WARP.md) files in your repository apply automatically, starting from the repository root and your current directory. See Rules for the file format, nested rules in subdirectories, and precedence.
Global rules - A rule file at ~/.agents/AGENTS.md applies across all projects on your machine.

Because rules and skills are discovered from these shared file locations, a repository that’s already set up for agents in the Warp app (or other agent tools that read AGENTS.md) works in the Warp CLI with no extra setup.

Skills

Skills are reusable instruction sets the agent can invoke to perform specific tasks. The Warp CLI discovers the same skills as the Warp app: project skills from your repository’s skill directories (such as .agents/skills/) and personal skills from your home directory (such as ~/.agents/skills/), scoped to your current working directory.

To browse and invoke skills:

Type /skills and press Enter to open the skills menu. The menu lists every skill in scope with its description; type to filter the list.
Use ↑ and ↓ to select a skill, then press Enter. The Warp CLI inserts /skill-name into the input so you can add extra instructions before running it.
Press Enter to invoke the skill. Any text after the skill name is passed along, either as skill arguments or as additional context for the agent.

You can also invoke a skill directly by typing / followed by its name, for example /deploy push the latest changes to staging. Matching skills appear in the slash command menu as you type.

Bundled skills

The Warp CLI ships with built-in skills that appear in the skills menu alongside your own:

/modify-settings - Updates Warp CLI settings for you. Describe the change you want (for example, “switch to a dark theme”), and the agent looks up the setting in the bundled settings schema and edits your settings file. Changes apply immediately. See Configuration for the settings file details.
/tui-migrate-setup - Sets up the Warp CLI from an existing Warp app installation. The agent copies compatible settings and global MCP server definitions from the desktop app, and asks for your approval before changing anything. Credentials and OAuth state are never copied, so MCP servers that require authentication prompt you to re-authenticate. Rules and skills don’t need migration because both surfaces discover them from the same locations.

MCP servers

MCP servers extend the agent with external tools and data sources. The Warp CLI keeps its own MCP server configuration, separate from the Warp app’s, so each can run its own set of servers.

Servers are defined in a JSON config file using the same mcpServers format as file-based MCP servers in the Warp app (on macOS, the file is ~/.warp_cli/.mcp.json). Edit the file to add or remove servers; the Warp CLI picks up changes automatically. Configured servers start automatically once you’re logged in.

Managing servers with /mcp

Type /mcp to open the MCP management view. The header shows the path to the config file the Warp CLI is reading.

Each configured server is listed with its transport (stdio or HTTP/SSE) and current status, including the number of tools a running server exposes. Select a server with ↑ and ↓, then press Enter to act on it:

Offline servers - Pressing Enter starts the server.
Running servers - Pressing Enter stops the server.
Failed servers - The row shows the failure message. Pressing Enter retries the server.
Servers awaiting authentication - Pressing Enter reopens the OAuth authorization page in your browser. Servers with saved credentials show a Log out row that removes the stored OAuth credentials.

Rules - Full guide to project and global rules
Skills - Authoring skills, skill arguments, and skill locations
MCP servers - Config format, server examples, and authentication
Codebase Context - Codebase indexing in the Warp app
Configuration - The Warp CLI settings file