cdmon-mcp

An MCP server and CLI for deploying files and running SQL on cdmon shared hosting.

Unofficial: not affiliated with, endorsed by or supported by cdmon. Ask cdmon about your hosting, and this repository's issues about this tool.

Small hosting plans have no SSH, no Composer, no Node and no build step: a deploy is files over FTP and SQL through phpMyAdmin, done by hand. This exposes both as tools an AI agent can call and as commands a CI job can run, with the host's quirks handled for you: cdmon blocks connections that come too fast, and phpMyAdmin reports a half-applied migration as a success.

Install

Requires Node 20 or newer, and a cdmon account with FTP and phpMyAdmin access. Nothing is installed on the hosting.

git clone https://github.com/blaipr/cdmon-mcp.git
cd cdmon-mcp
npm install      # also builds
npm link         # optional: puts cdmon-mcp and cdmon on your PATH

dist/index.js is the MCP server and dist/cli.js is the cdmon command.

Related MCP server: code-copy-mcp

MCP client configuration

Pass the credentials in the client's env block, never as tool arguments:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cdmon": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/cdmon-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "CDMON_FTP_HOST": "ftp.example.com",
        "CDMON_FTP_USER": "your-ftp-user",
        "CDMON_FTP_PASS": "your-ftp-password",
        "CDMON_FTP_ROOT": "/web",
        "CDMON_PMA_URL": "https://phpmyadmin.example.com",
        "CDMON_PMA_USER": "your-database-user",
        "CDMON_PMA_PASS": "your-database-password",
        "CDMON_PMA_DB": "your_database",
        "CDMON_PMA_DOMAIN": "your-domain.com",
        "NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS": "/home/you/.config/cdmon-mcp/intermediate.pem"
      }
    }
  }
}

The server starts read-only. Add CDMON_ALLOW_WRITES once you have seen it list a directory correctly.

Command line

The same code without a model in the loop, for scripts and CI:

cdmon files:list web/css
cdmon files:read app/Config/App.php
cdmon files:upload ./app/Config/App.php app/Config/App.php --apply
cdmon files:delete old.php --apply
cdmon files:download backup_db/latest.sql ./latest.sql
cdmon db:query "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM users"
cdmon db:dump ./backup.sql
cdmon db:execute ./sql/migration.sql --apply

Writes are a dry run unless you pass --apply, and only --apply needs CDMON_ALLOW_WRITES, so a migration can be previewed before writing is enabled. db:query and db:execute return at most 200 rows unless you pass --max-rows N, and say how many they held back.

Tools

Only the half you configure is offered: with just the CDMON_FTP_* variables there are no database tools, and the other way round. A half configured partly refuses to start. Downloading a file to a local path is CLI-only, so the server never reads or writes your disk by path.

Settings

All are environment variables; .env.example lists them.

Booleans accept 1, true, yes and on. Set CDMON_FTP_ROOT narrowly: on shared hosting an FTP account often reaches above the site's own folder.

Without CDMON_PMA_DOMAIN, sign-in fails with "no token in the response", which looks like a wrong password but is not.

cdmon's certificate chain

cdmon's phpMyAdmin sends its certificate without the intermediate, so Node fails with UNABLE_TO_VERIFY_LEAF_SIGNATURE although browsers show the site as secure. Supply the missing certificate rather than turning verification off (this tool has no setting for that):

# The issuer URL is in the certificate's Authority Information Access extension
openssl s_client -connect <host>:443 -servername <host> </dev/null 2>/dev/null \
  | openssl x509 -noout -text | grep -A1 "Authority Information Access"

curl -sS http://crt.example/TheIssuer.crt | openssl x509 -inform DER -out ~/.config/cdmon-mcp/intermediate.pem
export NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS=~/.config/cdmon-mcp/intermediate.pem

NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS must be set before Node starts: in the MCP client's env block, or exported before running the CLI.

Safety

• Read-only until CDMON_ALLOW_WRITES is set, and writes are still a dry run by default.

• Every path must resolve inside CDMON_FTP_ROOT; one that does not is refused, never clamped.

• FTP operations run one at a time, paced, because cdmon blocks bursts.

• Each SQL statement is its own request, so a partial apply is reported, never silent. Transaction control (BEGIN, COMMIT) is refused, since it cannot span separate requests.

• Credentials come only from the environment, never from a tool argument.

What is not protected: symlinks on the server are not resolved, there is no undo for an upload or a delete, the audit log is an ordinary file, a dry run cannot stop the site changing before the apply, and once writes are enabled anything that can call the server can write.

Development

npm install
npm run typecheck
npm test

Documentation

• Installation: requirements, client setup, the CLI and every setting

• Tools: each tool's arguments and output

• Safety: what is refused and why

• phpMyAdmin: how the web session is driven, and what markup it relies on

• Development: layout, tests and releases

License

Apache 2.0, see LICENSE.