Sympathy

MCP server for Incus VM operations. Named for sympathetic magic — the connection between puppet and puppeteer.

Agents on masternode puppeteer VMs via structured MCP tools instead of freeform Bash commands.

Tools

Tool	Description
vm_exec	Run a command inside a VM (stdout, stderr, exit code)
vm_file_read	Read a file from inside a VM
vm_file_write	Write content to a file inside a VM
vm_file_push	Push a file from host into a VM
vm_file_pull	Pull a file from a VM to host
vm_snapshot	Create a named snapshot
vm_restore	Restore to a named snapshot
vm_status	Get VM state, IP, resource usage
vm_list	List all VMs with status

Usage

# Run the MCP server (stdio transport)
uv run python -m sympathy_mcp

# Or via entry point
uv run sympathy-mcp

MCP Configuration

Add to .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sympathy-mcp": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--project", "/path/to/Sympathy-MCP", "sympathy-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Requirements

• Python 3.12+
• incus CLI installed and configured
• uv for project management

Architecture

• src/sympathy_mcp/incus.py — Async Incus CLI wrapper (validation, subprocess exec, structured results)
• src/sympathy_mcp/server.py — FastMCP server with 9 tools (stdio transport)

Shells out to incus CLI under the hood. Go rewrite planned.