hands-mcp

hands is an MCP CLI and local daemon that gives ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Cloud Code, and any MCP-capable chat real tools on your machine: read, search, edit, run commands, git, browser automation, and human-in-the-loop approvals.

The chat app is the brain. Hands is the hands. There is no LLM inside the daemon—it exposes Model Context Protocol over HTTP at /mcp.

Demo

Full demo video (MP4, ~94s)

Related MCP server: AKIMCP

Works with

• ChatGPT — remote MCP / connector settings (URL + bearer token)

• Claude — Desktop and apps with MCP support

• Cursor — MCP server config

• Cloud Code chat — custom MCP URL + bearer in your product’s MCP settings

• Any MCP client — hands connect --client generic

Step-by-step for each client: docs/CONNECTORS.md.

How it works

flowchart LR
  subgraph chats [AI_chats]
    ChatGPT[ChatGPT]
    Claude[Claude]
    Cursor[Cursor]
    Other[Any_MCP_client]
  end
  subgraph hands [hands_on_your_machine]
    MCP["HTTP /mcp"]
    UI["Approval UI :4877"]
    Tools[Host_tools]
  end
  Tunnel[Cloudflare_tunnel_optional]
  chats -->|Bearer_token| Tunnel
  Tunnel --> MCP
  chats -->|localhost| MCP
  MCP --> Tools
  UI --> Tools

Requirements

• Node.js 20+

• pnpm 10.x

• Optional: cloudflared for public URLs (docs/TUNNEL.md)

• Optional: Chromium for browser tools (npx playwright install chromium)

Install

git clone https://github.com/abhinavshyju/hands-mcp.git
cd hands-mcp
pnpm install
pnpm run install:global

Add ~/.local/bin to your PATH if needed:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Run

From any project directory:

hands .

This creates ~/.hands, writes .hands/config.json in the project if missing, registers the workspace, starts the MCP server, and opens the interactive approval console.

Open the observe-and-approve UI at http://127.0.0.1:4877 (file tree, Monaco, diffs, audit log, terminal, checkpoints).

Headless or step-by-step:

hands init
hands workspace add .
hands start --no-tunnel
hands review    # approvals in another terminal

Inside this repo you can use pnpm hands -- …; elsewhere use the global hands binary.

Enable Tab completion: eval "$(hands completion bash)" (see docs/CLI.md).

Connect your chat (~60 seconds)

1. Start the daemon (if not already running):

   hands .

2. Choose auth (default none for local use; use bearer or oauth before a public tunnel):

   hands auth mode bearer   # or: none | oauth
   hands token new my-laptop   # when using bearer

3. Print the MCP URL:

   hands connect --client generic
   # or: hands connect --client claude
   # or: hands connect --client cursor

4. In your chat product’s MCP / Connectors settings, add:

   • URL: http://127.0.0.1:4877/mcp (or your tunneled https://…/mcp)

   • Auth: Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN when auth.mode is bearer, or OAuth discovery when auth.mode is oauth (see docs/CONNECTORS.md)

For a temporary public URL (no Cloudflare account):

hands tunnel quick
# or: hands . --tunnel-quick

Full recipes: docs/CONNECTORS.md. Stable hostname: docs/TUNNEL.md.

Why Hands

• Safety modes — readonly, review (approve edits/shell), auto (still jailed and denylisted)

• Path jail — workspace-only paths; blocks secrets and sensitive dotfiles

• Shadow-git checkpoints — restore file snapshots without touching your repo HEAD

• Rich tools — read/search/edit, processes, git, quality helpers, Playwright browser tools

• Custom plugins — drop tools in ~/.hands/tools/ (docs/PLUGINS.md)

Details: docs/SAFETY.md, docs/THREAT-MODEL.md.

Tools

See docs/TOOLS.md for the full tool reference.

Documentation

Repository layout

packages/shared   zod schemas
packages/core     jail, edits, checkpoints, search, processes, approvals, tunnel
packages/tools    MCP tool implementations + plugin loader
packages/server   Fastify + MCP Streamable HTTP + control API
packages/cli      hands binary
apps/ui           React approval UI

Development

pnpm check    # lint, format check, typecheck, test
pnpm format   # Prettier (also on save if you use the recommended VS Code extension)
pnpm test
pnpm build

Open the repo in Cursor/VS Code and install the recommended Prettier extension (.vscode/extensions.json) for format-on-save.

CI runs on push/PR to main via .github/workflows/ci.yml.

Contributions welcome—see CONTRIBUTING.md and run pnpm check before opening a PR.

Upgrading from editer

If you used the previous editer CLI and ~/.editer layout:

1. Stop any running daemon (editer stop or kill the old process).

2. Install the new binary: pnpm run install:global (provides hands).

3. On first run, Hands renames ~/.editer → ~/.hands and project .editer → .hands when the new paths do not exist yet.

4. Re-paste MCP settings from hands connect (connector JSON key is now hands, not editer).

5. Remove the old shim at ~/.local/bin/editer if you no longer need it.

License

MIT

Related

hands-mcp can be embedded as a git submodule in MCP IDE (a Code-OSS workbench that supervises the daemon). See docs/MCP-IDE.md.