VPS Docker MCP — Advanced

MCP server for Claude Code that provides safe VPS diagnostics and Docker/Docker Compose management over SSH.

Architecture

Claude Code
    |
    | MCP / stdio
    v
Local Python MCP server
    |
    | SSH / AsyncSSH
    v
VPS
    |
    +-- systemd
    +-- Docker
    +-- Docker Compose

The MCP server runs locally. Nothing needs to listen on the VPS.

Module layout

src/vps_docker_mcp/
├── server.py          # MCP instance, wires modules together
├── ssh.py             # SSH config, run_ssh/run_many helpers
├── docker.py          # Docker and Docker Compose tools
└── infrastructure.py  # VPS diagnostics tools

Related MCP server: Docker/Hetzner MCP Server

Security model

This project intentionally does not expose arbitrary shell execution.

There is no:

ssh(command)
execute(command)
bash(command)

Instead, every operation is a predefined MCP tool.

Arguments such as container and service names are validated with a restrictive allow-list pattern and shell-quoted before being inserted into commands.

SSH host key checking is enabled through VPS_KNOWN_HOSTS.

Use a dedicated non-root SSH account, e.g. deploy, with Docker access.

Requirements

• Python 3.11+

• uv

• SSH access

• Docker on VPS

• Docker Compose v2 if Compose tools are used

• deploy user with permission to run Docker

Installation

uv sync

Configure:

cp .env.example .env

Example:

VPS_HOST=YOUR_VPS_IP
VPS_PORT=22
VPS_USER=deploy
VPS_SSH_KEY=~/.ssh/vps_mcp
VPS_KNOWN_HOSTS=~/.ssh/known_hosts
DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR=/opt/news-bot
MAX_OUTPUT_CHARS=20000

Test SSH independently:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/vps_mcp deploy@YOUR_VPS_IP docker ps

Test MCP:

uv run vps-docker-mcp

It will wait for MCP stdio input. That is expected.

Claude Code configuration

Copy .mcp.json.example to the project-level .mcp.json used by Claude Code and replace the absolute path.

Example:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vps-docker": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/home/me/projects/vps-docker-mcp-advanced",
        "run",
        "vps-docker-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Then start/restart Claude Code and inspect MCP status with:

/mcp

Depending on the Claude Code version, MCP servers can also be managed with the Claude Code CLI.

Tool groups

VPS diagnostics

• system_info

• disk_usage

• top_processes

• network_info

• systemd_failed

• journal_errors

• diagnose_vps

Docker read-only

• docker_ps

• docker_logs

• docker_inspect

• docker_stats

• docker_health

• docker_images

• docker_volumes

• docker_networks

• docker_disk_usage

Docker mutations

• docker_restart

• docker_start

• docker_stop

Docker Compose

Read-only:

• docker_compose_ps

• docker_compose_config

• docker_compose_logs

Mutating:

• docker_compose_restart

• docker_compose_pull

• docker_compose_up

Restricted diagnostics

diagnostic_command only permits a fixed list:

• pwd

• whoami

• date

• df

• free

• uptime

• docker_version

• docker_info

It does not accept arbitrary shell syntax.

Example Claude Code requests

Check the VPS health.

Claude can use:

diagnose_vps

For a broken container:

Find out why news-bot is unhealthy.

A useful diagnostic sequence is:

docker_health
docker_ps
docker_logs
docker_stats
docker_inspect

For a general resource problem:

Check whether the VPS is running out of RAM or disk space.

Claude can inspect:

system_info
disk_usage
top_processes
docker_stats
docker_disk_usage

Then:

Restart news-bot if the diagnosis indicates that a restart is appropriate.

The restart operation is a separate mutating tool.

Important production recommendation

Keep Claude Code's own permission/approval mechanism enabled for mutating operations.

The MCP server intentionally labels mutating tools in their descriptions, but MCP itself should not be treated as an authorization boundary.

For a production VPS, do not add arbitrary shell execution unless you deliberately accept the risk.

Future improvements

Good next additions would be:

• application-specific health checks

• Docker container restart-loop detection

• OOM detection

• disk growth detection

• systemd service restart tools

• configurable allow-list of Compose projects

• audit logging

• command execution timeouts per tool

• separate read-only and write SSH credentials