Terminal Control MCP Server

A modern MCP server that enables AI agents to control terminal sessions through persistent tmux-based sessions. Features real-time web interface for direct user access, comprehensive security controls, and support for interactive terminal programs including debuggers, SSH connections, and database clients.

✨ Features

🖥️ Tmux-Based Terminal Control

• Reliable Backend: Built on tmux and libtmux for stable terminal multiplexing

• Session Persistence: Long-running sessions with automatic cleanup and monitoring

• Raw Stream Capture: Direct terminal output via tmux pipe-pane

• Agent-Controlled: AI agents manage timing and interaction flow without automatic timeouts

• Flexible Content Modes: Get screen, history, since-input, or tail output for optimal workflow control

• Dual Access: Both agent (MCP tools) and user (web browser) can interact simultaneously

🌐 Optional Web Interface

• Real-time Terminal: Live xterm.js terminal emulator with WebSocket updates

• Session URLs: Direct browser access to any terminal session

• Zero Setup: Automatic web server startup with configurable networking

• Manual Control: Send commands directly without interrupting agent workflows

• Session Management: View all active sessions and their status

🛡️ Comprehensive Security

• Command Filtering: Block dangerous operations (rm -rf /, sudo, disk formatting, etc.)

• Path Protection: Restrict access to user directories only

• Rate Limiting: 60 calls/minute with session limits (max 50 concurrent)

• History Isolation: Prevent terminal sessions from polluting system history

• Audit Logging: Complete security event tracking

• Input Validation: Multi-layer validation for all inputs

• Configurable Levels: Off, low, medium, high protection levels

🚀 Quick Start

System Requirements

This package requires tmux for terminal multiplexing:

Python Requirements: Python 3.9 or later

Installation

From PyPI (Recommended)

From Source

Configuration

The server supports configuration through TOML files and environment variables:

Claude Code (Anthropic)

The MCP server will be automatically launched by Claude Code when needed.

Other MCP Clients

For other MCP clients, add to your configuration:

🔧 Configuration

The server uses TOML configuration files with optional environment variable overrides. Environment variables can override any TOML setting for deployment flexibility.

Configuration File Locations

The server looks for configuration files in this order:

1. ./terminal-control.toml (current working directory)

2. ~/.config/terminal-control.toml (user configuration directory)

3. /etc/terminal-control.toml (system-wide configuration)

4. Built-in defaults (if no config file found)

Configuration Sections

[web] - Web Interface Settings

Web Interface Modes:

• Enabled: Real-time web interface with xterm.js terminal emulator

• Disabled: Automatically opens system terminal windows attached to tmux sessions

Auto Port Selection: When auto_port=true, ports are automatically selected in the 9000-9999 range using hash(working_dir + process_id) % 1000 + 9000 to avoid conflicts between multiple instances.

[security] - Security Settings

Security Levels:

• off: No validation (⚠️ USE WITH EXTREME CAUTION)

• low: Basic input validation only

• medium: Standard protection (blocks common dangerous commands)

• high: Full protection (comprehensive validation and filtering)

[session] - Session Management

History Isolation Features:

• Automatic Isolation: Each session gets isolated history files in temporary directories

• Multi-Shell Support: Supports bash, zsh, fish, csh, tcsh, Python REPL, Node.js, PostgreSQL, MySQL

• Session-Specific Files: History files are prefixed with session IDs for complete isolation

• Automatic Cleanup: All history files are automatically deleted when sessions terminate

• Configurable: Can be disabled via isolate_history = false if system history is preferred

Supported Applications:

• Bash: HISTFILE, HISTCONTROL, HISTSIZE, HISTFILESIZE

• Zsh: HISTFILE, ZDOTDIR, SAVEHIST, HISTSIZE

• Fish: XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME

• Python: PYTHONSTARTUP with readline configuration

• Node.js: NODE_REPL_HISTORY

• PostgreSQL: PSQL_HISTORY

• MySQL: MYSQL_HISTFILE

[terminal] - Terminal Settings

Terminal Emulator Support: The system automatically detects available terminal emulators in order of preference:

• GNOME/GTK: gnome-terminal

• KDE: konsole

• XFCE: xfce4-terminal

• Elementary OS: io.elementary.terminal

• Generic: x-terminal-emulator, xterm

• macOS: Terminal (via open -a Terminal)

• Modern terminals: alacritty, kitty, terminator

Custom Terminal Emulator Configuration:

[logging] - Logging Configuration

Complete Configuration Example

Create terminal-control.toml in your project root:

🛠️ MCP Tools (6 Tools)

The server provides 6 MCP tools for complete terminal session lifecycle management:

Session Management

list_terminal_sessions

List all active terminal sessions with status information.

Returns:

• Session IDs, commands, and states

• Creation timestamps and last activity

• Total session count (max 50)

• Web interface URLs (if enabled)

exit_terminal

Terminate and cleanup a terminal session.

Parameters:

• session_id: Session ID to destroy

Features:

• Bidirectional cleanup: Sessions destroyed when agents call exit_terminal OR when users type exit

• Automatic monitoring: Dead sessions detected and cleaned up every 5 seconds

• Terminal window management: Closes associated terminal windows when web interface is disabled

Content Retrieval

get_screen_content

Get terminal content with precise control over output format.

Parameters:

• session_id: Session to get content from

• content_mode: Content retrieval mode

  • "screen" (default): Current visible screen only

  • "since_input": Output since last input command

  • "history": Full terminal history

  • "tail": Last N lines (requires line_count)

• line_count: Number of lines for tail mode

Returns:

• Terminal content based on mode

• Process running status

• ISO timestamp for agent timing decisions

Input Control

send_input

Send input to terminal sessions.

Parameters:

• session_id: Target session

• input_text: Text to send (supports escape sequences)

Important: Newlines are NOT automatically added. For command execution, explicitly include \n (e.g., "ls\n", "python\n").

Features:

• Raw input support with escape sequences

• No automatic timeouts (agent-controlled timing)

• Parallel user input possible via web interface

await_output 🆕

Wait for specific regex patterns to appear in terminal output.

Parameters:

• session_id: Session to monitor

• pattern: Regular expression pattern to match

• timeout: Maximum wait time in seconds (default: 10.0)

Returns:

• match_text: The matched text if pattern found, null if timeout

• screen_content: Current screen content when match occurred or timeout reached

• elapsed_time: Time elapsed before match or timeout

• success: Whether operation completed without errors

Features:

• Regex pattern matching: Full regular expression support for flexible output detection

• Configurable timeout: Control maximum wait time per pattern

• Non-blocking: Polls every 100ms without blocking other operations

• Precise timing: Returns exact elapsed time for performance optimization

Use Cases:

• Wait for build completion: await_output(session_id, r"Build successful|BUILD SUCCESS", 300.0)

• Monitor for errors: await_output(session_id, r"ERROR|FAILED|Exception", 30.0)

• Detect prompt return: await_output(session_id, r"\$\s*$|>\s*$", 5.0)

• Wait for program startup: await_output(session_id, r"Server running on|Listening on", 60.0)

Session Creation

open_terminal

Create new terminal sessions.

Parameters:

• shell: Shell to use (bash, zsh, fish, sh, etc.)

• working_directory: Starting directory (optional)

• environment: Environment variables (optional)

Returns:

• Unique session ID

• Initial screen content

• Web interface URL (if enabled)

• Process startup status

Features:

• Universal shell support

• Environment and directory control

• Immediate screen content availability

📚 Usage Examples

Basic Commands

Interactive Programs

Debugging Workflow

Using the included examples/example_debug.py:

Pro tip: If you set web_enabled=true in your configuration, you can also access the debugging session directly in your browser for real-time interaction.

Web Interface Usage

When web interface is enabled:

1. Agent creates session: "Starting debugger session..."

2. Agent provides URL: "You can also access it at http://localhost:9123/session/abc123"

3. User opens URL in browser for direct interaction

4. Both agent and user can send commands simultaneously

🌐 Web Interface

Real-Time Terminal Access

• Live output: See exactly what agents see in real-time

• Manual input: Send commands directly without agent awareness

• WebSocket updates: Automatic screen refreshes

• Session overview: View all active sessions at once

Session URLs

• Individual sessions: http://localhost:8080/session/{session_id}

• Session overview: http://localhost:8080/

• Direct browser access: No additional software required

• Transparent to agents: Manual interaction doesn't interfere with agent control

🔒 Security

Defense-in-Depth Approach

• Command filtering: Blocks dangerous operations (rm -rf /, sudo, dd, etc.)

• Path restrictions: Commands run in specified directories only

• Input validation: Multi-layer validation for all inputs

• Environment protection: Protects critical variables (PATH, LD_PRELOAD, etc.)

• Rate limiting: Prevents abuse with configurable limits

• Audit logging: Complete security event tracking

Agent-Controlled Philosophy

• Maximum flexibility: Security balanced with functionality

• User responsibility: Security managed by user and agent choices

• Transparent operation: All commands create persistent sessions

• No hidden automation: Agents control all timing and interaction

📁 Project Structure

🧪 Development

Testing

Code Quality

Development Installation

🚀 Development Status

• ✅ Tmux Integration: Complete libtmux-based terminal control

• ✅ Web Interface: Real-time xterm.js with WebSocket synchronization

• ✅ Agent Control: 6 MCP tools for complete session management

• ✅ Security Layer: Multi-layer validation and audit logging

• ✅ TOML Configuration: Structured configuration with environment overrides

• ✅ Type Safety: Full Pydantic models and mypy coverage

• ✅ Test Coverage: Comprehensive test suite with multiple categories

• ✅ Production Ready: Reliable session management with proper cleanup

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository

2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)

3. Make your changes and add tests

4. Ensure all tests pass:

   ruff check src/ tests/ && mypy src/ --ignore-missing-imports && pytest tests/

5. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')

6. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)

7. Open a Pull Request

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP) by Anthropic

• Uses libtmux for reliable terminal multiplexing

• Powered by FastAPI and xterm.js for the web interface