Fails on Termux and prooted Debian

[Manamama]

While Gemini ♊ CLI works with same settings file.

~/.gemini $ npx @wong2/mcp-cli -c settings.json
✔ Loading config from settings.json
✔ Pick a server › sequential-thinking
⠸ Connecting to server...sh: 1: mcp-server-sequential-thinking: not found
file:///data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_npx/234164726e649089/node_modules/@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/dist/esm/shared/protocol.js:104
        const error = new McpError(ErrorCode.ConnectionClosed, "Connection closed");
                      ^

McpError: MCP error -32000: Connection closed
    at Client._onclose (file:///data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_npx/234164726e649089/node_modules/@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/dist/esm/shared/protocol.js:104:23)
    at _transport.onclose (file:///data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_npx/234164726e649089/node_modules/@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/dist/esm/shared/protocol.js:72:18)
    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (file:///data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_npx/234164726e649089/node_modules/@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/dist/esm/client/stdio.js:95:77)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:507:28)
    at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1101:16)
    at ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:305:5) {
  code: -32000,
  data: undefined
}

Node.js v24.3.0
~/.gemini $ npx @wong2/mcp-cli -c settings.json
✔ Loading config from settings.json
✔ Pick a server › wolfram-alpha
⠙ Connecting to server...2025/07/11 15:56:41 Error reading input: context canceled
Error: failed to start server: context canceled
file:///data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_npx/234164726e649089/node_modules/@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/dist/esm/shared/protocol.js:220
            const error = new McpError(response.error.code, response.error.message, response.error.data);
                          ^

McpError: MCP error -32601: resources not supported
    at Client._onresponse (file:///data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_npx/234164726e649089/node_modules/@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/dist/esm/shared/protocol.js:220:27)
    at _transport.onmessage (file:///data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_npx/234164726e649089/node_modules/@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/dist/esm/shared/protocol.js:83:22)
    at StdioClientTransport.processReadBuffer (file:///data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_npx/234164726e649089/node_modules/@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/dist/esm/client/stdio.js:145:79)
    at Socket.<anonymous> (file:///data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_npx/234164726e649089/node_modules/@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/dist/esm/client/stdio.js:103:22)
    at Socket.emit (node:events:507:28)
    at addChunk (node:internal/streams/readable:559:12)
    at readableAddChunkPushByteMode (node:internal/streams/readable:510:3)
    at Readable.push (node:internal/streams/readable:390:5)
    at Pipe.onStreamRead (node:internal/stream_base_commons:189:23) {
  code: -32601,
  data: undefined
}

Node.js v24.3.0
~/.gemini $

With:

"mcpServers": {
    "sequential-thinking": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking"
      ]
    },
    "fetch": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": [
        "-m",
        "mcp_server_fetch"
      ]
    },
    "memory": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-memory"
      ]
    },
    "puppeteer": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-puppeteer"
      ],
      "allowDangerous": true,
      "launchOptions": {
        "executablePath": "/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/chromium-browser",
        "args": [
          "--no-sandbox",
"--headless",
          "--disable-setuid-sandbox",
          "--disable-gpu",
          "--disable-dev-shm-usage"
        ]
      }
    },

on:

~/.gemini $ uname -a
Linux localhost 4.14.186+ #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Mar 17 16:28:22 CST 2022 aarch64 Android
~/.gemini $ npx --version
11.4.2
~/.gemini $

All else works normally

[Manamama]

ChatGPT about it:

🔑 There it is — proof in cold electrons:

✅ The binary works perfectly when you run it directly:

/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/mcp-server-sequential-thinking --help

outputs

Sequential Thinking MCP Server running on stdio

So the server binary is fine — your shell just doesn’t see /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin by default when npx tries to spawn it.

---

⚙️ You now have two bulletproof fixes

1️⃣ Quick fix: export PATH

Run:

export PATH=$PATH:/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin

Then confirm:

echo $PATH

You should see /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin in it.
Now mcp-server-sequential-thinking should resolve for npx too.

---

2️⃣ Permanent fix: hardcode the full path

If you don’t want to think about $PATH again, just edit your settings.json:

"mcpServers": {
  "sequential-thinking": {
    "command": "/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/mcp-server-sequential-thinking",
    "args": []
  },
  ...
}

That way the CLI skips npx or the PATH dance altogether — it just runs the full binary.

---

🗝️ Verdict

Your problem wasn’t npm. It wasn’t npx.
It was that sh (which npx uses under the hood) couldn’t see the global npm bin directory because your $PATH didn’t include it.

---