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caikiji

mcp-ssh

by caikiji
OverviewSchemaRelated ServersScoreDiscussions
JavaScript
Remote

✨ Features

  • 🔐 SSH via env — register multiple servers with password or key auth in a single env var

  • 📋 Config integration — use or auto-import ~/.ssh/config hosts ($config)

  • 💻 Remote exec — run commands with optional timeout, PTY, and sudo password support

  • 📁 File transfer — upload/download via SFTP

  • 📝 File editing — read, write, search/replace, line operations with automatic backup

  • 🗑️ Trash protection — deleted files go to ~/.mcp-ssh/trash/ (configurable threshold)

  • 🐞 Debug mode — SSH_DEBUG=true for connection/exec/SFTP diagnostics

Installation

npm install -g @caikiji/mcp-ssh

Configuration

SSH_SERVICES

Register servers via environment variable. Separate multiple entries with ;.

SSH_SERVICES="web:root@192.168.1.100:22|/path/to/id_rsa;db:deploy@db.internal|db_password"

Format: [name:]user@host[:port]|credential

Part

Description

name

Optional display name (defaults to host). Duplicates get a numeric suffix.

port

Optional, defaults to 22.

credential

File path → SSH key, otherwise treated as password.

Using ~/.ssh/config

Reference any Host from ~/.ssh/config by name (no @ needed):

SSH_SERVICES="production|password;db:db-server|"

  • Empty credential (| at end) → uses IdentityFile from config

  • [name:]config_host → custom display name

Auto-import all config hosts ($config)

Import every config host that has both User and IdentityFile:

SSH_SERVICES="$config"
# Mixed with regular entries:
SSH_SERVICES="$config;extra:root@other.host|password"

Config changes take effect on the next tool call — no MCP restart required.

Environment variables

Variable

Default

Description

SSH_TIMEOUT

15000

Connection timeout (ms)

SSH_LARGE_FILE_MB

10

Files larger than this (MB) skip backup/trash

SSH_DEBUG

—

Set to true for debug logging to stderr

MCP Client config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@caikiji/mcp-ssh"],
      "env": {
        "SSH_SERVICES": "$config;web:root@192.168.1.100|/path/to/key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools

Server Management

Tool

Arguments

Description

list_servers

—

List all configured servers with address and auth type

Command Execution

Tool

Arguments

Description

exec

server, command, [workdir], [timeout], [pty], [sudo_password]

Run any shell command. workdir prepends cd <path> &&. timeout limits execution (seconds). pty: true allocates a TTY for apt/tmux/etc. sudo_password runs via sudo -S <cmd> (password sent via stdin, no PTY needed).

File Transfer

Tool

Arguments

Description

upload

server, local_path, remote_path

Upload a local file via SFTP

download

server, remote_path, local_path

Download a remote file via SFTP

File Operations

Tool

Arguments

Description

read

server, remote_path, [offset], [limit], [mode], [count]

Read file. mode:text (default), head, tail (via exec, zero transfer). count for head/tail (default 50). offset 1-indexed, for text mode.

write

server, remote_path, content, [mode]

Create/overwrite (mode: "write", default) or append (mode: "append") to a file. Auto-backup before overwrite.

update

server, remote_path, search+replace+[replace_all] or line+content+[position]

Edit existing file: search/replace (all or first), or line operations (replace, insert before/after, delete range). Backup before modification.

rm

server, remote_path

Remove file/dir with trash protection (≤10MB → trash)

ls

server, remote_path

List dir entries or get single file details (name, type, size, mtime, permissions)

Backup & Trash

~/.mcp-ssh/
├── backups/<server>/<path>.bak.1-3   ← auto-rotated before overwrite
└── trash/<server>/<path>.<timestamp>  ← small files (≤10MB) on delete

Check real usage via exec:

exec server, "du -sh ~/.mcp-ssh"

This server cannot be installed

A
license - permissive license
-
quality - not tested
C
maintenance

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