Cicall

Run and orchestrate CLI agents from any terminal.

Cicall is a terminal-independent, local MCP runtime for CLI agents. It owns the agent processes and their pseudo-terminals in a small background daemon. Your terminal, editor, desktop app, or MCP client is only a replaceable frontend.

Claude Code / Codex / Kimi / OpenCode
                  │ MCP (stdio)
             cicall-mcp
                  │ local Unix socket
             cicall daemon
                  │ PTY
          any CLI agent or command

This repository is an independent extraction of the session-orchestration idea first prototyped in Helios. Cicall does not depend on Helios, Ghostty, AppKit, or any particular terminal emulator.

Status

Cicall is an early, usable MVP for macOS and Linux. The current release is local-only and has no network listener. Do not expose its Unix socket to users you do not trust: a connected client can launch commands with your account.

Related MCP server: pty-mcp

Install

Python 3.9 or newer is required. The simplest install keeps Cicall in its own environment and exposes the commands through ~/.local/bin:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/basionwang-bot/cicall/main/scripts/install.sh | sh
~/.local/bin/cicall setup --client hermes --project my-app --cwd "$PWD"

You can inspect scripts/install.sh before running it. A manual installation from the GitHub release is documented in docs/TESTING.zh-CN.md.

cicall setup starts the local runtime and prints the exact MCP configuration for the current installation. The MCP server also starts the daemon automatically, so users do not have to manage it before opening their MCP client.

For development from a source checkout:

cd ~/Desktop/cicall
python3 -m venv .venv
. .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
pip install -e .
cicall setup --client generic --project my-app

No Python package is required at runtime beyond the standard library.

Use it from any terminal

Start an interactive CLI and stay attached:

cicall run --project my-app --cwd ~/code/my-app -- claude

Start it in the background:

cicall run --detach --project my-app --cwd ~/code/my-app -- codex
cicall list --project my-app
cicall attach s-xxxxxxxxxxxx

Read or drive a session without attaching a terminal UI:

cicall read s-xxxxxxxxxxxx
cicall send s-xxxxxxxxxxxx "Please run the tests" --enter
cicall key s-xxxxxxxxxxxx ctrl-c
cicall close s-xxxxxxxxxxxx

Switching from Terminal.app to iTerm, Ghostty, Warp, VS Code, or SSH does not change the managed process. Run cicall attach SESSION_ID from the new terminal.

Connect an MCP client

Running cicall setup prints a ready-to-paste configuration. A manual example:

cicall setup --client hermes --project my-app --cwd "$PWD"

Supported setup targets are generic, hermes, claude, and codex. Codex can be registered automatically:

cicall setup --client codex --project my-app --cwd "$PWD" --apply

Check an installation at any time:

cicall doctor --fix

Then register the server with a fixed project scope:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cicall": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/cicall-mcp",
      "args": ["--project", "my-app", "--cwd", "/absolute/path/to/my-app"]
    }
  }
}

The MCP server exposes:

• list_sessions

• read_output

• send_text

• send_key

• start_session

• close_session

Cicall follows the standard newline-delimited MCP stdio transport. It also auto-detects LSP-style Content-Length framing for compatibility with hosts such as HermesPet; replies use the same framing selected by the client.

An MCP server started with --project my-app cannot read, control, or close sessions belonging to another project.

With --cwd configured, an agent can start a CLI with only its argv:

{"command": ["claude"]}

Configuration

The daemon passes CICALL_SOCKET, CICALL_PROJECT, and CICALL_SESSION_ID to every managed child. An MCP client launched inside a managed session therefore inherits the correct runtime and project automatically.

Architecture and boundaries

Cicall deliberately separates three concerns:

1. daemon.py owns PTYs, process lifetime, output buffers, and the local socket.

2. mcp.py translates MCP tool calls into runtime operations.

3. cli.py is one human-facing client; it can be replaced by a GUI or web UI.

The PTY is an execution backend, not a terminal emulator. Cicall does not render terminal output. This is what makes it independent from the terminal application.

Roadmap

• Persist and restore session metadata across daemon restarts.

• Add task/delegation tools above the session primitives.

• Add structured activity detection and wait_until_idle.

• Add Docker, SSH, tmux, and remote-agent backends behind a backend interface.

• Add HTTP/SSE MCP transport with authentication for remote deployments.

• Ship signed binaries, Homebrew packaging, and Linux packages.

• Add a protocol SDK so third-party GUIs can become Cicall frontends.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Keep the local runtime dependency-light, make dangerous capabilities explicit, and preserve project isolation.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.