AI client
   │
   ▼
local MCP process ──► SSH target

AI clients ───────┐
CI agents ────────┼──► ssh-mcp ──► SSH targets
Dashboards ───────┘      │
                         ├─ API-key authentication
                         ├─ per-client authorization
                         ├─ rate limiting
                         ├─ audit logging
                         └─ connection pooling

monitoring agent  →  API key A  →  read-only commands  →  all servers
deployment agent  →  API key B  →  deploy commands      →  web servers only
database agent    →  API key C  →  db commands           →  database server only

                  ┌─ monitoring agent (read-only, all servers)
                  ├─ deployment agent (deploy commands, web only)
MCP clients ──────┼─ database agent (db commands, db server only)
                  └─ ...
                         │
                         ▼
                      ssh-mcp
                         │
                  centralized policies
                         │
              ┌──────────┼──────────┐
              ▼          ▼          ▼
             web         db      monitoring
           servers    servers     servers

{
  "version": 1,
  "ssh_targets": {
    "web-1": { "host": "10.0.1.10", "username": "deploy" },
    "db-1":  { "host": "10.0.1.20", "username": "dbadmin" }
  },
  "allowed_commands": {
    "default": {
      "web-1": { "allow": ["uptime", "df -h", "free -m"] }
    },
    "api_keys": {
      "deploy-key": {
        "web-1": { "allow": ["systemctl restart app", "deploy *"] }
      },
      "db-key": {
        "db-1": { "allow": ["systemctl restart postgres", "pg_dump *"] }
      }
    }
  }
}

"settings": {
  "rate_limit": {
    "enabled": true,                        // set false to disable entirely
    "max_requests_per_minute": 60,          // max requests per client IP in the window
    "window_seconds": 60.0,                 // sliding-window duration
    "cleanup_interval_seconds": 300.0       // expired-entry GC interval
  }
}

mkdir -p config logs
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ssh_key -N ""
cp default-config.json config/ssh-mcp-config.json

{
  "version": 1,
  "ssh_targets": {
    "web-server": {
      "host": "192.168.1.10",
      "port": 22,
      "username": "deploy",
      "private_key": "/app/ssh_key"
    }
  },
  "block_patterns": [ "\\brm\\s+-rf\\b", "\\bdd\\s+if=" ],
  "allowed_commands": {
    "default": [
      { "targets": ["*"], "commands": ["hostname", "uptime", "free", "df", "ps", "ls", "cat"] }
    ]
  },
  "settings": {}
}

docker compose up -d --build

curl http://localhost:9080/health
# {"status": "ok", "connection_pool": {...}}

curl -X POST http://localhost:9080/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-api-key" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 1,
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params": {
      "name": "ssh_list_servers",
      "arguments": {}
    }
  }'

curl -X POST http://localhost:9080/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-api-key" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 2,
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params": {
      "name": "ssh_execute_command",
      "arguments": {"server_name": "web-server", "command": "uptime"}
    }
  }'

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh": {
      "url": "http://localhost:9080/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <your-api-key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

import requests

MCP_URL = "https://ssh-mcp.example.com/mcp"
API_KEY = "your-api-key"


def call_tool(name: str, arguments: dict) -> dict:
    response = requests.post(
        MCP_URL,
        headers={
            "Content-Type": "application/json",
            "X-API-Key": API_KEY,
        },
        json={
            "jsonrpc": "2.0",
            "id": 1,
            "method": "tools/call",
            "params": {"name": name, "arguments": arguments},
        },
    )
    response.raise_for_status()
    return response.json()


print(call_tool("ssh_list_servers", {}))
print(call_tool("ssh_execute_command", {
    "server_name": "web-server",
    "command": "uptime",
}))

curl -X POST http://localhost:9080/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-api-key" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 1,
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params": {
      "name": "ssh_execute_command",
      "arguments": {"server_name": "web-server", "command": "uptime"}
    }
  }'

# List available servers
call_tool("ssh_list_servers", {})
# {"web-server": {"host": "192.168.1.10", "port": 22, "username": "deploy"}}

# List what this client can run on web-server
call_tool("ssh_list_allowed_commands", {"server_name": "web-server"})
# ["cat", "df", "du", "free", "grep", "head", "hostname", ...]

# Execute a command
call_tool("ssh_execute_command", {
    "server_name": "web-server",
    "command": "uptime",
})
# " 07:12:33 up 10 days,  2:15,  1 user,  load average: 0.08, 0.03, 0.01"

# Download a file
call_tool("ssh_download_file", {
    "server_name": "web-server",
    "remote_path": "/etc/hostname",
})
# "web-server\n"

# Upload a file
call_tool("ssh_upload_file", {
    "server_name": "web-server",
    "remote_path": "/tmp/backup.sql",
    "content": "CREATE TABLE ...;\n",
    "permissions": "0640",
})
# "OK: Uploaded 19 bytes to /tmp/backup.sql"

# Check SSH connectivity
call_tool("ssh_check_connection", {"server_name": "web-server"})
# {"success": true, "output": "ping", "error": null, "exit_code": 0, "checkcommand": "echo ping"}

# Check with custom timeout
call_tool("ssh_check_connection", {"server_name": "web-server", "timeout": 5})

{
  "error": true,
  "error_type": "AuthorizationError",
  "message": "Command rejected: target 'foo' not found",
  "retryable": false,
  "request_id": "abc-123"
}

{
  "version": 1,
  "ssh_targets": { ... },
  "block_patterns": [ ... ],
  "allowed_commands": {
    "default": [ ... ],
    "api_keys": [ ... ],
    "networks": [ ... ]
  },
  "settings": { ... }
}

"ssh_targets": {
  "web-server": {
    "host": "192.168.1.10",
    "port": 22,
    "username": "deploy",
    "private_key": "/app/ssh_key",
    "checkcommand": "echo ping"
  }
}

"allowed_commands": {
  "default": [
    { "targets": ["*"], "commands": ["hostname", "uptime", "free", "df", "ps"] }
  ],
  "api_keys": [
    {
      "name": "ci-bot",
      "key_hash": "pbkdf2:sha256:100000$<salt>$<hash>",
      "rules": [
        { "targets": ["web-server"], "commands": ["systemctl", "journalctl"] }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "networks": [
    {
      "name": "home-lan",
      "range": "192.168.1.0/24",
      "rules": [
        { "targets": ["*"], "commands": ["*"] }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

environment variables  >  secrets.json  >  ssh-mcp-config.json

{
  "settings": {
    "log_level": "INFO",
    "logging": {
      "log_targets": [
        { "target": "stdout" },
        { "target": "jsonfile", "filepath": "logs/ssh-mcp.log" }
      ],
      "max_log_output": 4096,
      "compress_rotated": true
    }
  }
}

2025-01-15 10:30:00 INFO ssh_execute_command: Command executed on server1

{"timestamp": "2025-01-15T10:30:00+00:00", "event": "ssh_execute_command", "level": "INFO", "message": "Command executed on server1", "request_id": "abc-123", "log_level": "INFO", "log_format_version": 1}

services:
  mcp-ssh:
    environment:
      CONFIG_API_ENABLED: "true"
      CONFIG_API_TOKEN: "your-secret-token-here"

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer your-secret-token-here" http://localhost:9080/api/config

# Generate an auth token
openssl rand -hex 32

CONFIG_API_ENABLED=true
CONFIG_API_TOKEN=<your-token>

docker pull ghcr.io/gelse/ssh-mcp:latest

# Unit tests (fast inner loop)
source .venv/bin/activate
python -m pytest tests/test_<module>.py -x

# Full unit test suite
make test

# Integration tests (requires Docker)
make integrationtest