Tools Overview

dotnet-mcp-server ships with nine built-in tools. Each tool uses an action parameter to dispatch sub-operations.

Tool	Actions	Best for
DateTime	now, convert	Current time, timezone conversion
FileSystem	read_file, list_directory, search_files	Reading files and navigating directories
SQL Query	query, list_tables, describe_table, list_connections	Read-only database queries
HTTP Request	get, post	Calling external REST APIs
Text	regex_match, regex_replace, word_count, diff_text, format_json, format_xml	Text processing and formatting
Data Transform	json_query, csv_to_json, json_to_csv, xml_to_json, base64_encode, base64_decode, hash	Format conversion and encoding
Environment	get, list, has	Reading environment variables
System Info	system_info, processes, network	OS details, running processes, network
Git	status, log, diff, branch_list, blame	Read-only Git repository inspection

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How Tools Work

All tools communicate via JSON-RPC 2.0. The AI sends a tools/call request:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "datetime",
    "arguments": {
      "action": "now"
    }
  }
}

The server routes by name, then dispatches by action inside the tool.

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Security Model

Each tool has its own security constraints that are enforced at the server level and cannot be bypassed:

• FileSystem — paths validated against an allowlist; 1 MB read limit
• SQL — SELECT-only; 17 dangerous keywords blocked; 30s timeout; max 1,000 rows
• HTTP — host allowlist with subdomain support; HTTP/HTTPS only; 10K char response limit
• Git — read-only operations; argument sanitization
• Environment — hardcoded blocklist for sensitive variable names

See the Security Constraints page for full details.

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Plugin Tools

You can add your own tools without modifying the server. See the Plugin Development section.