Use MCP servers in Cline with Toolport
Toolport is a free, open source local MCP gateway. Add your servers to Toolport once, flip the Cline toggle, and Cline gets all of them through a single gateway entry, with lazy discovery loading 3 meta-tools instead of every server's full tool list.
Setup
- Download Toolport for Windows, macOS or Linux, and add your MCP servers to it (or import the ones your clients already have; secrets go to your OS keychain).
- Open the Clients tab and toggle Cline on. Toolport writes its gateway entry into Cline's config, next to anything already there.
- Restart or reload Cline. Your full server set is available through Toolport, and any server you add later shows up without touching Cline again.
Where Cline keeps its MCP config
- Windows
%APPDATA%\Code\User\globalStorage\saoudrizwan.claude-dev\settings\cline_mcp_settings.json - macOS
~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/globalStorage/saoudrizwan.claude-dev/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json - Linux
~/.config/Code/User/globalStorage/saoudrizwan.claude-dev/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json
JSON with a top-level mcpServers object.
Why a gateway instead of Cline's own server list?
- One setup, every client. The same servers work in Cline and every other client on your machine; add a server once and they all get it.
- Up to 91% fewer tool tokens. Instead of every server dumping its tool list into context, the agent loads 3 meta-tools and searches on demand (measured).
- Secrets in the OS keychain. API keys are injected at runtime and never sit in Cline's config file.
- Watched by default. Rug-pull and tool-poisoning detection on every tool, plus per-tool governance and a destructive-tool kill switch. How the security works.