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Why Shuttle?

When AI coding assistants need to operate remote servers (run tests on GPU machines, deploy to staging, check logs), they need a secure bridge. Shuttle provides:

• 🔐 4-Level Command Security — Block dangerous commands, require confirmation for risky ones, warn on installs, allow the rest
• 🔄 Connection Pooling — Reuse SSH connections across commands, no repeated handshakes
• 📦 Session Isolation — Each AI conversation gets its own working directory context
• 🌐 Web Audit Panel — See every command the AI ran, per node, with full stdout/stderr
• 🛡️ Per-Node Rules — Different security policies for prod vs dev servers
• ⚡ Jump Host Support — Connect through bastion/jump servers

Getting Started

1. Install

# Recommended: install CLI once (tools bin on PATH)
uv tool install shuttle-mcp
shuttle --help

# Or run without installing (stdio / one-off)
uvx shuttle-mcp --help

# Older PyPI wheels without the `shuttle-mcp` script:
# uvx --from shuttle-mcp shuttle --help

2. Add your first node

shuttle node add
# Follow the prompts: name, host, username, password/key

3. Connect to your AI assistant

Claude Code / Cursor (stdio mode):

// .mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "shuttle": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["shuttle-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Service mode (with Web UI):

# Start the service
shuttle serve

# Then configure your AI client with the URL

// .mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "shuttle": {
      "url": "http://localhost:9876/mcp/"
    }
  }
}

That's it. Your AI assistant can now execute commands on your remote servers.

Two Running Modes

Mode	Command	MCP Transport	Web UI	Use Case
CLI	shuttle	stdio	❌	Quick use, AI client manages lifecycle
Service	shuttle serve	streamable-http	✅ http://localhost:9876	Audit logs, manage rules, cloud deploy

Both modes share the same SQLite database — commands logged in CLI mode are visible in the Web UI when you switch to service mode.

MCP Tools

AI assistants get these tools automatically:

Tool	Description
ssh_run	Run a command on a remote node (sessions auto-managed)
ssh_upload	Upload a file via SFTP
ssh_download	Download a file via SFTP
ssh_list_nodes	List all configured nodes
ssh_add_node	Add a new SSH node

Example conversation

You: Check the GPU usage on my training server
AI:  → ssh_run(node="gpu-server", command="nvidia-smi")
AI:  Your GPU server has 7x A100-80GB, all idle at 0% utilization.

You: Start a training run
AI:  → ssh_run(node="gpu-server", command="cd /workspace && python train.py")
AI:  Training started. Epoch 1/10... (working directory preserved automatically)

Security Rules

Commands are evaluated against a 4-level security system:

Level	Behavior	Example
🔴 block	Rejected immediately	rm -rf /, mkfs, fork bomb
🟡 confirm	Requires user confirmation	sudo, rm -rf, shutdown
🟠 warn	Executes with warning logged	apt install, pip install
🟢 allow	Executes normally	Everything else

Default rules are seeded on first startup. Customize via Web UI or directly in the database.

Per-Node Overrides

Different servers can have different rules:

Global: sudo .* → confirm
GPU Server: sudo .* → allow (trusted environment)
Prod Server: DROP TABLE → block (extra protection)

Web Panel

Start with shuttle serve, open http://localhost:9876:

• Overview — Node cards with status, quick stats
• Activity — Per-node command log (console-style, with stdout/stderr)
• Security Rules — Manage global defaults and per-node overrides
• Settings — Connection pool and cleanup configuration

The Web UI requires a bearer token (displayed when you run shuttle serve).

CLI Reference

# MCP Server
shuttle                      # Start MCP server (stdio mode)
shuttle serve                # Start service mode (MCP + Web)
shuttle serve --port 8080    # Custom port
shuttle serve --host 0.0.0.0 # Bind to all interfaces

# Node Management
shuttle node add             # Add node interactively
shuttle node list            # List all nodes
shuttle node test <name>     # Test SSH connection
shuttle node edit <name>     # Edit a node
shuttle node remove <name>   # Remove a node

# Configuration
shuttle config show          # Display current config

Configuration

All settings can be overridden with environment variables (prefix SHUTTLE_):

Variable	Default	Description
SHUTTLE_DB_URL	sqlite+aiosqlite:///~/.shuttle/shuttle.db	Database URL
SHUTTLE_WEB_PORT	9876	Web panel port
SHUTTLE_POOL_MAX_TOTAL	50	Max total SSH connections
SHUTTLE_POOL_MAX_PER_NODE	5	Max connections per node
SHUTTLE_POOL_IDLE_TIMEOUT	300	Idle connection timeout (seconds)

Using PostgreSQL

SHUTTLE_DB_URL=postgresql+asyncpg://user:pass@host:5432/shuttle shuttle serve

Requires: uv pip install asyncpg (install into the same environment that runs Shuttle)

Development

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/enwaiax/shuttle.git
cd shuttle
uv sync

# Run tests
uv run pytest tests/ -v

# Lint
uv run ruff check src/ tests/

# Frontend dev (hot reload)
cd web && npm install && npm run dev
# Backend: uv run shuttle serve (in another terminal)

Architecture

Developer ↔ AI Assistant ↔ Shuttle (MCP) ↔ SSH ↔ Remote Servers
                              │
                    ┌─────────┴──────────┐
                    │   Core Engine       │
                    │  ├ ConnectionPool   │
                    │  ├ SessionManager   │
                    │  ├ CommandGuard     │
                    │  └ SQLAlchemy ORM   │
                    └────────────────────┘

Service mode: Single ASGI app serving both MCP (at /mcp/) and Web UI (at /) on the same port.

License

MIT

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