SSH MCP Server

CI npm License: MIT

An MCP server that gives AI assistants full SSH/SFTP remote operations — session management, command execution, interactive shells, file transfers, port forwarding, and system diagnostics.

Works with Claude Desktop, VS Code + GitHub Copilot, and any MCP-compatible client.

Packages

Package	Description
ssh-mcp-server	MCP server (49 tools) — standalone CLI & npm package
ssh-mcp-vscode	VS Code extension — auto-registers the server with GitHub Copilot

Features

• Session Management — Connect/disconnect/ping with password or key-based auth
• Command Execution — Run commands with stdout/stderr capture, timeouts, exit codes
• Sudo Execution — Elevated commands with password injected via stdin (never logged)
• Background Jobs — Long-running commands with polling and cancellation
• Interactive Shells — PTY shells with read/write/resize
• SFTP Operations — Upload, download, read, write, delete, list, stat
• Port Forwarding — Local (-L) and remote (-R) SSH tunnels
• System Diagnostics — OS, CPU, memory, disk, network, load, processes
• File Search & Analysis — Find files, grep contents, diff, tail, checksum
• Server Management — Services, processes, cron, network diagnostics, users
• Multi-Host Workflows — Broadcast commands, transfer files between hosts, jump/bastion connections, script execution
• Session Intelligence — System snapshots, snapshot diffs, connection bookmarks
• Container Awareness — List, logs, exec for Docker/Podman containers
• Audit Logging — NDJSON structured logs with filtering

Quick Start

Standalone (npm)

npm install -g simple-ssh-mcp-server

Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["ssh-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "SSH_MCP_MAX_CONNECTIONS": "10",
        "SSH_MCP_HOST_KEY_MODE": "accept"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code + GitHub Copilot

Install the SSH MCP VS Code extension — the server starts automatically when VS Code launches. Requires VS Code 1.99+ and GitHub Copilot.

Tools (49)

Category	Tools
Sessions	ssh_connect, ssh_disconnect, ssh_list_sessions, ssh_session_ping
Exec	ssh_exec, ssh_sudo_exec
Background	ssh_exec_background, ssh_exec_poll, ssh_exec_poll_list, ssh_exec_cancel
Shells	ssh_shell_open, ssh_shell_write, ssh_shell_read, ssh_shell_resize, ssh_shell_close, ssh_shell_list
SFTP	ssh_sftp_list, ssh_sftp_upload, ssh_sftp_download, ssh_sftp_read, ssh_sftp_write, ssh_sftp_delete, ssh_sftp_stat
Port Forward	ssh_port_forward_local, ssh_port_forward_remote, ssh_port_forward_list, ssh_port_forward_remove
File Search	ssh_find, ssh_grep, ssh_diff, ssh_tail, ssh_checksum
Server Mgmt	ssh_service, ssh_process, ssh_cron, ssh_network, ssh_user
Multi-Host	ssh_broadcast, ssh_transfer, ssh_jump_connect, ssh_script
Session Intel	ssh_snapshot, ssh_snapshot_diff, ssh_bookmark
Containers	ssh_container_list, ssh_container_logs, ssh_container_exec
Diagnostics	ssh_system_info, ssh_get_logs

Configuration

All settings via environment variables:

Variable	Default	Description
SSH_MCP_MAX_CONNECTIONS	10	Max concurrent SSH sessions
SSH_MCP_LOG_DIR	~/.ssh-mcp/logs	Audit log directory
SSH_MCP_DEFAULT_TERM	xterm-256color	Default TERM for PTY shells
SSH_MCP_DEFAULT_COLS	220	Terminal width
SSH_MCP_DEFAULT_ROWS	50	Terminal height
SSH_MCP_EXEC_TIMEOUT_MS	30000	Command timeout (ms)
SSH_MCP_HOST_KEY_MODE	accept	Host key: accept, strict, ask
SSH_MCP_ENV	development	production defaults to strict host keys

See server README for the full configuration reference.

Security

• Sudo passwords injected via stdin, never logged
• ANSI escape sequences stripped from output
• Output truncation prevents unbounded memory
• SSH keepalives detect dead connections
• ESLint security plugin + Gitleaks + CodeQL + Trivy in CI

License

MIT