fix: LLM health check via mcplocal instead of spawning gemini directly

Status command now queries mcplocal's /llm/health endpoint instead of
spawning the gemini binary. This uses the persistent ACP connection
(fast) and works for any configured provider, not just gemini-cli.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

src/cli/src/commands/status.ts

@@ -1,16 +1,12 @@
 import { Command } from 'commander';
 import http from 'node:http';
-import { execFile } from 'node:child_process';
-import { promisify } from 'node:util';
 import { loadConfig } from '../config/index.js';
-import type { ConfigLoaderDeps, LlmConfig } from '../config/index.js';
+import type { ConfigLoaderDeps } from '../config/index.js';
 import { loadCredentials } from '../auth/index.js';
 import type { CredentialsDeps } from '../auth/index.js';
 import { formatJson, formatYaml } from '../formatters/index.js';
 import { APP_VERSION } from '@mcpctl/shared';
 
-const execFileAsync = promisify(execFile);
-
 // ANSI helpers
 const GREEN = '\x1b[32m';
 const RED = '\x1b[31m';
@@ -24,7 +20,8 @@ export interface StatusCommandDeps {
   log: (...args: string[]) => void;
   write: (text: string) => void;
   checkHealth: (url: string) => Promise<boolean>;
-  checkLlm: (llm: LlmConfig) => Promise<string>;
+  /** Check LLM health via mcplocal's /llm/health endpoint */
+  checkLlm: (mcplocalUrl: string) => Promise<string>;
   isTTY: boolean;
 }
 
@@ -43,34 +40,34 @@ function defaultCheckHealth(url: string): Promise<boolean> {
 }
 
 /**
- * Quick LLM health check. Returns 'ok', 'binary not found', 'auth error', etc.
+ * Check LLM health by querying mcplocal's /llm/health endpoint.
+ * This tests the actual provider running inside the daemon (uses persistent ACP for gemini, etc.)
  */
-async function defaultCheckLlm(llm: LlmConfig): Promise<string> {
-  if (llm.provider === 'gemini-cli') {
-    const bin = llm.binaryPath ?? 'gemini';
-    try {
-      const { stdout } = await execFileAsync(bin, ['-p', 'respond with exactly: ok', '-m', llm.model ?? 'gemini-2.5-flash', '-o', 'text'], { timeout: 15000 });
-      return stdout.trim().toLowerCase().includes('ok') ? 'ok' : 'unexpected response';
-    } catch (err) {
-      const msg = (err as Error).message;
-      if (msg.includes('ENOENT')) return 'binary not found';
-      if (msg.includes('auth') || msg.includes('token') || msg.includes('login') || msg.includes('401')) return 'not authenticated';
-      return `error: ${msg.slice(0, 80)}`;
-    }
-  }
-
-  if (llm.provider === 'ollama') {
-    const url = llm.url ?? 'http://localhost:11434';
-    try {
-      const ok = await defaultCheckHealth(url);
-      return ok ? 'ok' : 'unreachable';
-    } catch {
-      return 'unreachable';
-    }
-  }
-
-  // For API-key providers, we don't want to make a billable call on every status check
-  return 'ok (key stored)';
+function defaultCheckLlm(mcplocalUrl: string): Promise<string> {
+  return new Promise((resolve) => {
+    const req = http.get(`${mcplocalUrl}/llm/health`, { timeout: 30000 }, (res) => {
+      const chunks: Buffer[] = [];
+      res.on('data', (chunk: Buffer) => chunks.push(chunk));
+      res.on('end', () => {
+        try {
+          const body = JSON.parse(Buffer.concat(chunks).toString('utf-8')) as { status: string; error?: string };
+          if (body.status === 'ok') {
+            resolve('ok');
+          } else if (body.status === 'not configured') {
+            resolve('not configured');
+          } else if (body.error) {
+            resolve(body.error.slice(0, 80));
+          } else {
+            resolve(body.status);
+          }
+        } catch {
+          resolve('invalid response');
+        }
+      });
+    });
+    req.on('error', () => resolve('mcplocal unreachable'));
+    req.on('timeout', () => { req.destroy(); resolve('timeout'); });
+  });
 }
 
 const SPINNER_FRAMES = ['⠋', '⠙', '⠹', '⠸', '⠼', '⠴', '⠦', '⠧', '⠇', '⠏'];
@@ -104,7 +101,7 @@ export function createStatusCommand(deps?: Partial<StatusCommandDeps>): Command
         const [mcplocalReachable, mcpdReachable, llmStatus] = await Promise.all([
           checkHealth(config.mcplocalUrl),
           checkHealth(config.mcpdUrl),
-          llmLabel ? checkLlm(config.llm!) : Promise.resolve(null),
+          llmLabel ? checkLlm(config.mcplocalUrl) : Promise.resolve(null),
         ]);
 
         const llm = llmLabel
@@ -148,8 +145,8 @@ export function createStatusCommand(deps?: Partial<StatusCommandDeps>): Command
         return;
       }
 
-      // LLM check with spinner
-      const llmPromise = checkLlm(config.llm!);
+      // LLM check with spinner — queries mcplocal's /llm/health endpoint
+      const llmPromise = checkLlm(config.mcplocalUrl);
 
       if (isTTY) {
         let frame = 0;

src/cli/tests/commands/status.test.ts

@@ -134,13 +134,23 @@ describe('status command', () => {
     expect(out).toContain('✗ not authenticated');
   });
 
-  it('shows binary not found error', async () => {
+  it('shows error message from mcplocal', async () => {
     saveConfig({ ...DEFAULT_CONFIG, llm: { provider: 'gemini-cli', model: 'gemini-2.5-flash' } }, { configDir: tempDir });
     const cmd = createStatusCommand(baseDeps({ checkLlm: async () => 'binary not found' }));
     await cmd.parseAsync([], { from: 'user' });
     expect(output.join('\n')).toContain('✗ binary not found');
   });
 
+  it('queries mcplocal URL for LLM health', async () => {
+    saveConfig({ ...DEFAULT_CONFIG, mcplocalUrl: 'http://custom:9999', llm: { provider: 'gemini-cli', model: 'gemini-2.5-flash' } }, { configDir: tempDir });
+    let queriedUrl = '';
+    const cmd = createStatusCommand(baseDeps({
+      checkLlm: async (url) => { queriedUrl = url; return 'ok'; },
+    }));
+    await cmd.parseAsync([], { from: 'user' });
+    expect(queriedUrl).toBe('http://custom:9999');
+  });
+
   it('uses spinner on TTY and writes final result', async () => {
     saveConfig({ ...DEFAULT_CONFIG, llm: { provider: 'gemini-cli', model: 'gemini-2.5-flash' } }, { configDir: tempDir });
     const cmd = createStatusCommand(baseDeps({

src/mcplocal/src/http/server.ts

@@ -81,6 +81,34 @@ export async function createHttpServer(
     reply.code(200).send({ status: 'ok' });
   });
 
+  // LLM health check — tests the active provider with a tiny prompt
+  app.get('/llm/health', async (_request, reply) => {
+    const provider = deps.providerRegistry?.getActive() ?? null;
+    if (!provider) {
+      reply.code(200).send({ status: 'not configured' });
+      return;
+    }
+    try {
+      const result = await provider.complete({
+        messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'Respond with exactly: ok' }],
+        maxTokens: 10,
+      });
+      const ok = result.content.trim().toLowerCase().includes('ok');
+      reply.code(200).send({
+        status: ok ? 'ok' : 'unexpected response',
+        provider: provider.name,
+        response: result.content.trim().slice(0, 100),
+      });
+    } catch (err) {
+      const msg = (err as Error).message ?? String(err);
+      reply.code(200).send({
+        status: 'error',
+        provider: provider.name,
+        error: msg.slice(0, 200),
+      });
+    }
+  });
+
   // Proxy management routes to mcpd
   const mcpdClient = new McpdClient(config.mcpdUrl, config.mcpdToken);
   registerProxyRoutes(app, mcpdClient);