Parallels RAS MCP Server

A community-maintained, read-only Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for querying Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) infrastructure via the RAS REST API.

Gives AI assistants visibility into your RAS environment — infrastructure, site settings, policies, publishing, and sessions — without making any changes.

Not affiliated with Parallels International GmbH. "Parallels" is a trademark of its respective owner.

Scope and intended use

Two transports are supported, selected via the MCP_TRANSPORT environment variable:

• stdio (default) — launched as a local subprocess by the MCP client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, etc.). Intended for an individual administrator on their own workstation, or for development and test environments. Credentials come from the launching process's environment; there is no network listener.

• http — streamable-HTTP listener with a required bearer token. Intended for trusted-network deployments where one server is shared by multiple clients (e.g. behind a reverse proxy that adds TLS). Defaults to binding 127.0.0.1:3000; binding to all interfaces is opt-in.

In either mode this server holds a RAS administrator session and exposes 41 read-only tools. It does not expose write or destructive tools and does not provide multi-tenancy or rate limiting — treat it as an admin-equivalent service and protect access accordingly.

API compatibility: verified against the Parallels RAS v21 REST API. Resources used are stable across v18–v21.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or later

• npm

• Access to a Parallels RAS server with the REST API enabled (port 20443 by default)

Installation

git clone https://github.com/RMITBLOG/ParallelsRAS_MCP.git
cd ParallelsRAS_MCP
npm install
npm run build

Environment Variables

Connection to RAS

Transport

Configuration

The examples below cover the stdio transport, which is the default and what most users want. For the HTTP transport, see Running over HTTP further down.

Claude Desktop

Edit your claude_desktop_config.json (typically at %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows or ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "parallels-ras": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/ParallelsRAS_MCP/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "RAS_HOST": "ras-server.example.com",
        "RAS_USERNAME": "administrator",
        "RAS_PASSWORD": "your-password",
        "RAS_PORT": "20443",
        "RAS_IGNORE_TLS": "true"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add parallels-ras -- node /path/to/ParallelsRAS_MCP/build/index.js

Set environment variables in your shell or in the Claude Code MCP configuration.

Cursor

In Cursor settings, go to Features → MCP Servers and add:

• Name: parallels-ras

• Command: node /path/to/ParallelsRAS_MCP/build/index.js

• Environment: RAS_HOST, RAS_USERNAME, RAS_PASSWORD

Other MCP-compatible clients

For any client supporting MCP over stdio, point it at:

node /path/to/ParallelsRAS_MCP/build/index.js

with the required environment variables set in the client's MCP server configuration.

Running over HTTP

The HTTP transport implements MCP Streamable HTTP and runs as a long-lived process. Use it when you want one server shared by multiple clients on a trusted network — typically behind a reverse proxy that terminates TLS.

Start the server

export RAS_HOST=ras-server.example.com
export RAS_USERNAME=administrator
export RAS_PASSWORD=your-password
export MCP_TRANSPORT=http
export MCP_HTTP_BEARER_TOKEN=$(openssl rand -hex 32)   # required
# export MCP_HTTP_HOST=127.0.0.1                       # default; set 0.0.0.0 to expose
# export MCP_HTTP_PORT=3000

npm run start:http

The server logs the listen address on startup. The MCP endpoint is POST /mcp. Requests must include Authorization: Bearer <MCP_HTTP_BEARER_TOKEN>; missing or wrong tokens return 401.

Connect a client

For clients that support a streamable-HTTP MCP server, point them at http://<host>:<port>/mcp with the bearer token in the Authorization header. For example, the Claude Code CLI:

claude mcp add parallels-ras --transport http \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $MCP_HTTP_BEARER_TOKEN" \
  http://your-server:3000/mcp

Production checklist

• Always front this with TLS — a reverse proxy (nginx, Caddy, Traefik) terminating HTTPS, with the MCP server bound to 127.0.0.1 and reached only via the proxy.

• Treat MCP_HTTP_BEARER_TOKEN as a credential — at least 32 bytes of entropy, stored in a secret manager, rotated when staff leave.

• Restrict network reachability (firewall, VPN, private subnet). The bearer check is the only auth layer in the server itself.

• The RAS admin credentials sit on the same host as the listener — anyone with shell access on that host can read them. Do not run this on a multi-tenant box.

Available Tools (41 total)

All tools are read-only and annotated with readOnlyHint: true for automatic approval in compatible clients.

Infrastructure (14)

Site Settings (9)

FSLogix is not exposed at site scope by the REST API — it is configured per host pool / per AVD template, or via PowerShell.

Policies (1)

Farm Settings (7)

Publishing (9)

RD Sessions (1)

Extending

To add a new tool:

1. Create or open a file in src/tools/ (e.g., notifications.ts).

2. Export a register(server: McpServer): void function.

3. Call rasClient.get("/api/<Resource>") with a path that exists in the official RAS REST API.

4. Import and call your register function in src/index.ts.

5. Run npm run build.

Module file names (infrastructure.ts, site-settings.ts, etc.) are an internal grouping for related tools. They do not correspond to URL segments — the real RAS API is flat under /api/<PascalCaseResource> (e.g. /api/Agent, /api/License, /api/MFA).

API reference

• Browser reference: https://docs.parallels.com/landing/ras-rest-api-guide

• API base URL: https://<ras-host>:20443/api/

Roadmap

• Write operations — out of scope for this repo. A separate server should host any tool that mutates RAS state, so the read-only tools here can stay safe to auto-approve.

• OAuth / OIDC for the HTTP transport — currently a single shared bearer token. Per-user identity would let multiple clients share a deployment without sharing credentials.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Please open an issue first for anything beyond a small fix so we can agree on the approach.

History

• v1.1.0 — adds an opt-in streamable-HTTP transport with bearer-token auth, alongside the existing stdio transport.

• v1.0.1 — corrects all 41 tool paths against the Parallels RAS v21 REST API and adds a build-time path verifier (scripts/verify-tool-paths.mjs) against the bundled OpenAPI spec.

• v1.0.0 — draft scaffold; REST API paths had been modelled from the documentation table-of-contents headings rather than the real endpoints. Superseded by v1.0.1.

License

MIT