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mcp/harbor

Gemini CLI Cairn Commons Prompt/explore-cairn

How to: Gemini CLI Cairn Commons explore-cairn

client:Gemini CLI transport:streamable-http prompt:explore-cairn

Add Cairn Commons to Gemini CLI

  1. 01

    Open ~/.gemini/settings.json and merge this in. Keep any servers already there. 

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cairn-commons": {
      "httpUrl": "https://cairncommons.dev/api/mcp"
    }
  }
}
  1. 02

    Save the file and restart Gemini CLI.

  2. 03

    explore-cairn is surfaced in the client's prompt or command menu. Unlike a tool, you invoke it deliberately — Gemini CLI will not call it for you.

  3. 04

    If it does not appear, check that Cairn Commons is connected and that you are looking at its prompts rather than its tools.

Gemini expands $VAR and ${VAR} inside env values, so a secret can live in your shell rather than this file. Gemini CLI docs

Same prompt, other clients

Read from the server itself, by connecting to it and calling prompts/list on 17 October 2026. A listing does not declare its prompts, so asking is the only way to know them, and this is what the server actually offers rather than what its listing claims. Names only are stored; connect the server for each prompt's arguments.

Cairn Commons MCP server