🖥️ MCP Terminal Server

Name: MCP Terminal Server
Author: alejoair

PyPI version Python Versions License: MIT

Interactive terminal sessions via Model Context Protocol (MCP)

MCP Terminal Server provides cross-platform PTY (pseudo-terminal) support for Windows, Linux, and macOS, exposing terminal sessions through both REST API and MCP protocol. Perfect for AI assistants, remote terminal access, and terminal automation.

✨ Features

🌍 Cross-platform: Works on Windows (cmd.exe/PowerShell), Linux, and macOS
🔄 Real PTY: Supports interactive commands (vim, nano, htop, etc.)
👁️ Visual Snapshots: Captures what a human would see on the terminal screen
🔤 UTF-8 Support: Handles special characters and emojis correctly
🚀 MCP Protocol: Auto-exposes all endpoints as MCP tools via fastapi-mcp
📡 REST API: Full HTTP/REST API with FastAPI
🎯 Multiple Sessions: Manage multiple terminal sessions simultaneously

📦 Installation

From PyPI

pip install mcp-terminal

From Source

git clone https://github.com/alejoair/mcp-terminal cd mcp-terminal pip install -e .

🚀 Quick Start

Start the Server

# Start on default port (8777) mcp-terminal # Start on custom port mcp-terminal --port 9000 # Development mode with auto-reload mcp-terminal --reload # Custom host and port mcp-terminal --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8888

Access the Server

Once running, you can access:

API Documentation: http://localhost:8777/docs
MCP Endpoint: http://localhost:8777/mcp
Health Check: http://localhost:8777/health

📖 Usage

REST API

Create a Terminal

curl -X POST http://localhost:8777/terminals \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"rows": 24, "cols": 80}'

Response:

{ "success": true, "terminal_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000", "message": "Terminal created successfully" }

Send Commands

curl -X POST http://localhost:8777/terminals/{terminal_id}/input \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"data": "echo Hello World\n"}'

Get Visual Snapshot

curl http://localhost:8777/terminals/{terminal_id}/snapshot

Response:

{ "terminal_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000", "display": "C:\\Users\\...\nHello World\nC:\\Users\\...> ", "lines": ["C:\\Users\\...", "Hello World", "C:\\Users\\...> "], "cursor": {"row": 2, "col": 15}, "size": {"rows": 24, "cols": 80}, "is_alive": true, "created_at": "2024-01-01T00:00:00" }

List Terminals

curl http://localhost:8777/terminals

Resize Terminal

curl -X PUT http://localhost:8777/terminals/{terminal_id}/resize \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"rows": 30, "cols": 100}'

Close Terminal

curl -X DELETE http://localhost:8777/terminals/{terminal_id}

MCP Tools

When using with MCP clients (like Claude Desktop), the following tools are automatically available:

create_terminal_terminals__post - Create new terminal
list_terminals_terminals__get - List active terminals
get_terminal_snapshot_terminals__terminal_id__snapshot_get - Get visual snapshot
send_terminal_input_terminals__terminal_id__input_post - Send commands
resize_terminal_terminals__terminal_id__resize_put - Resize terminal
close_terminal_terminals__terminal_id__delete - Close terminal

Python API

from mcp_terminal import TerminalManager # Create manager manager = TerminalManager() # Create terminal terminal_id = await manager.create(rows=24, cols=80) # Send input await manager.send_input(terminal_id, "echo Hello\n") # Get snapshot snapshot = await manager.get_snapshot(terminal_id) print(snapshot["display"]) # Close terminal await manager.close(terminal_id)

🏗️ Architecture

src/mcp_terminal/ ├── __init__.py # Package initialization ├── __main__.py # CLI entry point ├── server.py # FastAPI application with MCP integration ├── core/ │ └── terminal/ │ ├── session.py # TerminalSession - PTY management │ ├── buffer.py # TerminalBuffer - Visual screen capture │ └── manager.py # TerminalManager - Multi-session coordinator └── models/ └── terminal.py # Pydantic models for API

🔧 Configuration

Command Line Options

--host HOST Host to bind to (default: 127.0.0.1) --port PORT Port to bind to (default: 8777) --reload Enable auto-reload for development --log-level LEVEL Set log level (debug, info, warning, error, critical) --version Show version and exit

Environment Variables

You can also configure via environment variables:

export MCP_TERMINAL_HOST=0.0.0.0 export MCP_TERMINAL_PORT=9000 export MCP_TERMINAL_LOG_LEVEL=debug

🧪 Testing

# Install dev dependencies pip install -e ".[dev]" # Run tests pytest # Run with coverage pytest --cov=mcp_terminal

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Fork the repository
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
Open a Pull Request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

Built with FastAPI
Uses terminado for cross-platform PTY support
Uses pyte for terminal emulation
MCP integration via fastapi-mcp

📚 Resources

🐛 Bug Reports

If you find a bug, please open an issue on GitHub.

💬 Support

For questions and support, please use GitHub Discussions.

Made with ❤️ by the MCP Terminal team

MCP Terminal Server