MCP Ssh Manager

You give your agents a shell, and you see what they do with it.

An MCP server for SSH. Let Claude Code , Claude Desktop and OpenAI Codex (or any MCP client)

work on your real servers — run commands, move files, query databases, take backups, check health —

and watch over their shoulder while they do it.

Twenty seconds, unedited — watch full size . Real SSH, real SFTP, three throwaway hosts on the loopback.

The problem, in one line

An MCP SSH server is the most dangerous tool you can hand an agent: a shell on machines that matter. Today, when your agent runs something on production, you find out afterwards — if you find out at all.

This one lets you watch, and lets you say no. It is also, on the boring days, simply a very good way to let an assistant do the server work you were going to do yourself.

Choose your workspace

Desktop application (`4.0.3`): one installation with its own runtime, terminal, file browser and server settings. No separate Node.js or npm installation. Download it:

Already using npm / the CLI? npm update -g mcp-ssh-manager brings 4.0.3, and the V4 engine runs without an interface, from your existing .env, TOML or process variables — no automatic import, no forced wizard, no approval prompt unless you enable one per server. The one behaviour that tightens is SSH host-key verification; read that section of the upgrade and rollback guide before upgrading. To stay on 3.8 for now, pin it: npm install -g mcp-ssh-manager@3.

From the engine to the application in one step. With a V4 engine installed, ssh-manager app downloads the desktop application of the engine's own version, checks it against the release (size and SHA-256 from the release manifest, and on macOS Apple's signature and notarization), installs it and opens it — or just opens it when it is already there. The browser interface of ssh-manager control offers the same as one button. Your agents keep using the npm engine; the application is the window on top of it. Nothing is downloaded unless you ask.

Without npm at all. The application carries the engine too, and your AI tools can start that one: *Options → AI tools* lists Claude Code, Claude Desktop and Codex, says which ssh-manager each one starts (npm's, the application's, or none yet) and switches it in one click — no Node, no terminal. The same tab, in ssh-manager control, shows npm users which version each tool really runs. A switch rewrites that tool's one ssh-manager entry, keeps its environment variables, and takes effect when the tool next starts; switching back is the same click.

Updates. The application checks for a new version at launch and every six hours and says so where you will see it: a mark on the sidebar, *Options → Updates* (the running version, the one on offer, a *Check now* button, release notes) and, once per version, a notification. Downloading is a click, and installing is a second one (*Restart to update*) or happens when you quit. The npm engine updates with npm, on its own schedule. A change to the interface reaches npm users with the next npm release and application users with the next application release.

Up and running with npm

npm install -g mcp-ssh-manager     # or: brew tap bvisible/mcp-ssh-manager https://github.com/bvisible/mcp-ssh-manager && brew install ssh-manager

ssh-manager server add # guided: host, user, key or password claude mcp add ssh-manager mcp-ssh-manager

That's it. Restart Claude Code and ask it something.

Using Codex, a source checkout, or a project-scoped install?

OpenAI Codex — same install, then two files. In ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.ssh-manager]

command = "mcp-ssh-manager" env = { SSH_CONFIG_PATH = "/Users/you/.codex/ssh-config.toml" } startup_timeout_ms = 20000

And your servers in ~/.codex/ssh-config.toml:

[ssh_servers.production]

host = "prod.example.com" user = "admin" key_path = "~/.ssh/id_rsa" default_dir = "/var/www" group = "production"

Everything below works identically from Codex — same 37 tools, same config fields.

From source:

git clone https://github.com/bvisible/mcp-ssh-manager.git

cd mcp-ssh-manager && npm install cd cli && ./install.sh claude mcp add ssh-manager node /absolute/path/to/mcp-ssh-manager/src/index.js

The MCP engine needs no build. To use the interface (ssh-manager control) from a checkout, build it once: npm run build:ui (the published package and the desktop app already carry it).

Scopes — --scope project writes an .mcp.json your team can commit; --scope user enables it everywhere for you.

Prerequisites — Node 18+, on Linux, macOS or Windows. rsync for ssh_sync, sshpass only if you sync with password auth (brew install hudochenkov/sshpass/sshpass, or apt-get install sshpass).

Then just ask

No syntax to learn. Your assistant already knows how to use the 37 tools; you talk to it in your own words.

There is a CLI too, for when you'd rather do it yourself: ssh-manager with no arguments opens this.

Watch over its shoulder — the control plane

New in 4.0.0. The application is opt-in: with no vault and no approval enabled, the engine keeps working headlessly, exactly as 3.8.x. See the migration guide for host-key verification and recovery behaviour.

ssh-manager control          # prints a local URL — or `ssh-manager app` for the desktop app

One thing in two wrappers. ssh-manager control runs the whole interface in a browser tab with nothing extra to install; the desktop builds for macOS, Windows and Linux are that same page with the engine inside them, so they need neither Node nor the npm package.

The desktop build adds the two things a browser tab cannot do:

• It lives in the menu bar. The icon carries a count when something is waiting, and its menu lists what is blocked on you, which shells and commands are open right now, and your servers — so "is anything waiting on me?" costs a glance instead of a window switch. Closing the window leaves it there rather than quitting.
• It posts real system notifications, with the application's own identity, so macOS and Windows show and route them properly. Destructive requests stay on screen instead of fading after four seconds. macOS asks your permission the first time it needs to.

Stop it before it runs

The agent pauses and waits. You see the machine, the user, the tool, and the command in full — wrapped, never truncated, because half a command is how you approve the wrong thing. A desktop notification fires when something is waiting, because the request that goes unseen is the one that times out and is denied.

Approval is switched on from the interface, per server — not from a file:

Servers → the server → Approval → never (default) | destructive | always

Approval is stored in the vault and cannot be overridden by .env or process variables. Editing connection details preserves it. This prevents accidental configuration overrides from disabling the gate; it is not a security boundary against a process that already controls your local user account or vault files. If you had SSH_SERVER_*_APPROVAL set in a file, the engine says so on every start rather than quietly leaving you unprotected.

The destructive list is deliberately short. A prompt that cries wolf gets clicked through without being read, which is worse than no prompt at all: systemctl restart does not interrupt you, systemctl stop does.

When a request requires approval, a timeout, unreachable socket or disconnected control plane denies it. If nothing is listening, start ssh-manager control or the desktop app before retrying. Servers with approval disabled keep working headl