holoviz-mcp CLI

The holoviz-mcp CLI provides direct access to HoloViz documentation, component introspection, and visualization tools from the command line.

Installation

The recommended way to install is as a uv tool:

uv tool install holoviz-mcp

This installs both holoviz-mcp and hv commands into an isolated environment. Use hv as a shorter alternative in all examples below (e.g., hv search Panel Tabulator, hv pn get Button).

When to Use CLI vs MCP

• Prefer MCP tools when the HoloViz MCP server is loaded — they return structured, typed data (including images) and integrate natively with LLM tool calling
• Use CLI when MCP tools are not available but holoviz-mcp (or hv) is installed and you have Bash/shell access
• Search the web as a last resort when neither MCP tools nor CLI are available

Output Formats

All tool commands support three output formats via --output / -o:

• pretty (default) — Rich terminal output with colors and tables, for humans
• markdown — Markdown-formatted text, optimized for LLMs
• json — Structured JSON, for scripts and programmatic use

Setup commands (serve, install, update) output human-readable text by default.

Command Structure

Commands follow noun-verb pattern with Python import aliases for library-specific tools:

holoviz-mcp <command>                  # general tools
holoviz-mcp pn <command>               # Panel tools     (import panel as pn)
holoviz-mcp hv <command>               # HoloViews tools (import holoviews as hv)
holoviz-mcp hvplot <command>           # hvPlot tools    (import hvplot)

Quick Reference

Search & Documentation

holoviz-mcp search Panel Tabulator      # search all indexed docs (no quotes needed)
holoviz-mcp search query -p panel      # search within a project
holoviz-mcp search query -n 5          # return up to 5 results
holoviz-mcp doc get <path> <project>   # get specific document (use search to find paths)
holoviz-mcp ref get <component>        # find reference guide (when you know the exact name)
holoviz-mcp ref get <component> -p panel  # filter by project

Skills

holoviz-mcp skill list                 # list available skills with descriptions
holoviz-mcp skill get <name>           # get skill content (always Markdown)

Panel (pn)

holoviz-mcp pn list                    # list all components
holoviz-mcp pn list -P panel_material_ui  # filter by package
holoviz-mcp pn list -m panel.widgets   # filter by module path
holoviz-mcp pn get Button -P panel     # get full component details
holoviz-mcp pn params Button -P panel  # get parameter details
holoviz-mcp pn search input widget      # search components by keyword (no quotes needed)
holoviz-mcp pn search chart -l 5       # limit results
holoviz-mcp pn packages                # list Panel-related packages

hvPlot

holoviz-mcp hvplot list                # list plot types (~28 types)
holoviz-mcp hvplot get scatter         # get plot-specific params (compact)
holoviz-mcp hvplot get scatter --generic  # include generic options shared by all plot types
holoviz-mcp hvplot get scatter --style bokeh  # include backend-specific style options
holoviz-mcp hvplot get scatter --signature  # get function signature instead

HoloViews (hv)

holoviz-mcp hv list                    # list visualization elements (~60 elements)
holoviz-mcp hv get Curve               # get Curve element docstring
holoviz-mcp hv get Curve --backend matplotlib  # specify backend

Projects

holoviz-mcp project list               # list indexed projects (~20 projects)

Display & Inspect

holoviz-mcp inspect                    # inspect app at localhost:5006
holoviz-mcp inspect http://localhost:8080  # inspect specific URL
holoviz-mcp inspect --no-screenshot    # console logs only
holoviz-mcp inspect --no-console-logs  # screenshot only
holoviz-mcp inspect --full-page --delay 5  # full page with 5s delay

Index Management

holoviz-mcp update index               # refresh documentation index

Tips

• Use holoviz-mcp search with specific terms for better results: "Tabulator pagination page_size" > "how to paginate a table"
• Use holoviz-mcp pn get when you need the full docstring, constructor signature, and parameters
• Use holoviz-mcp pn params when you only need parameter details (lighter, no docstring)
• Use holoviz-mcp ref get when you know the exact component name; use search for fuzzy/semantic lookup
• Pipe JSON output to jq for filtering: holoviz-mcp pn list -o json | jq '.[].name'
• Use -o pretty for human-readable output in the terminal