Proceed MCP

proceed-mcp

Review your MCP agent's approval requests from Telegram.

proceed-mcp sends an agent's proposed action to your private Telegram chat. Choose Approve, Reject, or Respond with instructions, and the waiting MCP call receives your decision. Only an explicit Approve grants approval. The server records the outcome. It does not execute the action.

To get started, install the package, pair your Telegram chat, and connect your MCP client using the steps below.

Preview: @meshimize/proceed-mcp@0.1.0-preview.1 is published on npm and listed in the

official MCP Registry. Pin the exact version. MCP Events, automatic continuation after a timeout,

doctor, and retry are not implemented in this preview.

Distribution

@meshimize/proceed-mcp is the npm package for this product. It installs the proceed-mcp command and its runtime sources. It is not a hosted MCP endpoint, and there is no cloud broker. The MCP adapter and the broker run on your machine. The broker listens only on 127.0.0.1 and calls https://api.telegram.org for Telegram.

• npm: @meshimize/proceed-mcp
• MCP Registry: io.github.renl/proceed-mcp

The current version is 0.1.0-preview.1. Both the preview and latest dist-tags point to it, so pin the exact version rather than relying on either tag. Publishing automation is planned but not implemented.

Requirements

• Node.js 24 or newer. package.json declares >=24.
• One dedicated Telegram bot and one private chat with that bot. Do not share the bot with another poller or a webhook.
• The broker and the MCP adapter must run on the same machine. The human may be remote.
• On Windows, powershell.exe and icacls must be available for the owner-only ACL check. On POSIX, the state directory must support owner-only mode bits.
• No build tool, native addon, or postinstall script is required.

Install

Install the exact preview version globally:

npm install --global @meshimize/proceed-mcp@0.1.0-preview.1

proceed-mcp --help

Or run it without a global install:

npx --yes --package @meshimize/proceed-mcp@0.1.0-preview.1 -- proceed-mcp --help

The scoped package installs the same proceed-mcp command.

Set up the broker and Telegram

1. Create protected state

Choose an absolute directory that is empty or does not exist yet. Keep it outside the repository.

proceed-mcp init --state-dir <absolute-state-dir>

init creates a protected config.json, a local control credential, and an empty journal. It refuses to overwrite existing state. It prints the state path, never a credential value.

2. Add one owner

The owner is the transport principal used by the MCP adapter.

proceed-mcp owner add <owner-id> --label "<display-label>" --state-dir <absolute-state-dir>

must match [a-z0-9_-]{1,64}. The label is display-only and appears in Telegram. Run this before the first serve, because owner add refuses while a broker ownership record exists. Owner records and credentials are immutable.

3. Create a dedicated Telegram bot

Create a new bot with @BotFather and keep its token private. Use this bot only for this broker. Do not configure a webhook for it and do not run another poller against it. proceed-mcp never deletes a webhook and never rewinds or drops pending updates. If Telegram reports a competing consumer, Telegram processing stops with a diagnostic, and you must repair the bot and restart serve.

4. Start the broker in the foreground

Put the token only in the broker's own process environment.

PowerShell:

$env:PROCEED_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN = '<bot-token>'

proceed-mcp serve --state-dir 'C:\absolute\path\to\proceed-state'

POSIX:

export PROCEED_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN='<bot-token>'

proceed-mcp serve --state-dir /absolute/path/to/proceed-state

Wait for proceed-mcp: broker ready on http://127.0.0.1:43189 and the state directory line. Leave this terminal open.

The token is read only from the broker process environment. It is never stored in the state directory, the journal, Telegram, or the request history. The product does not read .env files. Never put the token in the MCP adapter's environment or in the MCP client configuration.

If the token is missing or empty, the broker still starts locally and prints a warning. A request cannot be created until a human is paired, so complete Telegram setup before testing. If the token is rejected, or another consumer owns the bot, Telegram processing stops with a diagnostic while the local broker keeps running. Fix the bot and restart serve.

5. Pair the private chat

In a second terminal:

proceed-mcp pair --state-dir <absolute-state-dir>

The command prints Pairing code: and Expires at:. In a private chat with the bot, send /start, then send exactly /pair before the expiry. Group chats are refused. /start alone grants nothing. A bot-suffixed or malformed command does not pair. The code is one-use, valid for five minutes, and is not stored in plaintext.

Only the first pairing succeeds. There is no in-chat re-pair or identity change.

6. Connect an MCP client

OpenCode V2

Add a local server under mcp.servers in opencode.jsonc. This shape follows the OpenCode V2 MCP documentation.

{

"$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json", "mcp": { "servers": { "proceed": { "type": "local", "command": [ "npx", "--yes", "--package", "@meshimize/proceed-mcp@0.1.0-preview.1", "--", "proceed-mcp", "mcp", "--owner", " ", "--state-dir", "/absolute/path/to/proceed-state", ], "codemode": false, }, }, }, }

Replace and the state path. On Windows, escape backslashes or use forward slashes in the JSON string. codemode: false exposes the tools directly. OpenCode reloads MCP configuration after a save. Check the connection with opencode mcp list.

The --package argument selects the scoped npm package, and the argument after -- is the proceed-mcp command from that package. If you installed the package globally, start the command array with proceed-mcp and keep the same mcp --owner ... --state-dir ... arguments.

With this server name, OpenCode exposes the tools as proceed_prepare_approval, proceed_request_approval, proceed_get_approval, proceed_cancel_approval, and proceed_acknowledge_approval. If you leave Code Mode enabled, OpenCode groups them under tools.proceed.

Do not add PROCEED_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN to environment. The adapter does not need it and must not receive it.

Other stdio MCP clients

Use this command in any client that can start a local stdio server:

proceed-mcp mcp --owner <owner-id> --state-dir <absolute-state-dir>

To run the published version without a global install:

npx --yes --package @meshimize/proceed-mcp@0.1.0-preview.1 -- proceed-mcp mcp --owner <owner-id> --state-dir <absolute-state-dir>

The adapter needs no OpenCode API, password, provider credential, or proprietary session metadata. It connects only to the local broker. Keep serve running.

The server advertises MCP protocol 2025-11-25 and exposes five tools: prepare_approval, request_approval, get_approval, cancel_approval, and acknowledge_approval.

MCP tools

action accepts 1-1000 Unicode scalars, context accepts 0-1000, and session_label accepts 1-128. client_request_id must match [A-Za-z0-9_-]{1,128}. expires_in_seconds is an integer from 60 to 86400 and defaults to 3600.

request_approval is the waiting call. It returns the actual outcome, not a creation receipt. prepare_approval alone sends no Telegram question and creates no actionable request.

A normal agent flow is:

1. Call prepare_approval and keep the returned request_handle, request_id, and request_capability together.
2. Call request_approval with that handle and capability, a unique client_request_id, the exact action, and enough context for the human to distinguish the request.
3. Use the returned resolution and delivery_state. The call returns the human outcome itself.
4. If the result contains a decision_id, acknowledge that exact decision with acknowledge_approval.
5. Act only when the outcome is approved, and only within your own permission rules.

The request capability, together with its owner principal, authorizes later get_approval, cancel_approval, and acknowledge_approval calls. Never put it in Telegram, assistant messages, logs, session_label, action, or context. Those text fields are displayed in the Telegram question. A label is caller-supplied display context, not authenticated identity.

Sharing the capability with another context under the same owner grants that context access to that one request. It does not redirect the original waiting call and does not authorize a different owner.

Decisions and delivery

Only an explicit Approve grants approval. Reject records rejection. Respond records request-specific instructions only after valid correlated text. To send instructions,