SSHand

An open MCP server that gives any AI agent SSH access to remote Linux/Unix machines — shell commands, file read/write, and SFTP transfers.

Works with Claude.ai, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code Copilot, OpenAI Agents SDK, and any other MCP-compatible client.

Quick start

# 1. Install
pip install sshand

# 2. Run the interactive setup wizard
sshand setup

What the setup wizard actually does

sshand setup (or python setup_wizard.py from a checkout) runs three steps, in order:

1. Add a host — alias, hostname/IP, port, username, and an auth method (key file, password, or ssh-agent). On Windows it also checks whether the OpenSSH Authentication Agent service is running and offers to start it for you if you picked agent auth.

2. Test the connection — it immediately tries to connect with what you just entered and runs a no-op command, so you find out right away if something's wrong (bad path, wrong port, unreachable host) instead of during your first real agent session. The host is saved either way — if the test fails, fix the issue and just run sshand setup again.

3. Generate client config — pick one or more AI clients from a list (space-separated numbers, or Enter for all) and the wizard prints a ready-to-paste config snippet for each, with the correct absolute paths already filled in. Today's options: Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot Chat), OpenAI (Agents SDK / ChatGPT Desktop), and a generic "Other" HTTP option for any MCP-compatible client not listed by name.

You can run the wizard again any time — to add another host, or to reprint client config snippets without touching your existing hosts. It never overwrites a host without asking first.

Related MCP server: Simple SSH MCP Server

Installation options

Option A — pip (recommended for most users)

pip install sshand        # from PyPI
pip install -e .            # from source, editable install

Option B — uvx (zero-install, no venv needed)

uv is the modern Python package manager. With it installed you can run SSHand without any manual install step:

uvx sshand                # run server directly
uvx sshand setup          # run setup wizard

This is the cleanest option to recommend to non-technical users.

Option C — plain Python (no install)

git clone https://github.com/muradmalik23/sshand
cd sshand
pip install -r requirements.txt
python server.py            # start server
python setup_wizard.py      # run wizard

Connecting to your AI client

Claude.ai and ChatGPT (web + desktop)

For Claude.ai web and ChatGPT, SSHand runs as an HTTP server and you connect it through each app's native integrations UI.

→ See INTEGRATIONS.md for the full step-by-step guide, including how to expose the server publicly using ngrok or Cloudflare Tunnel, and how to add it to Claude.ai Integrations and ChatGPT Desktop.

Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["sshand"],
      "env": { "SSH_MCP_HOSTS_FILE": "/absolute/path/to/hosts.yaml" }
    }
  }
}

Or with plain Python:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/sshand/server.py"],
      "env": { "SSH_MCP_HOSTS_FILE": "/absolute/path/to/sshand/hosts.yaml" }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after saving.

Cursor

Create or update .cursor/mcp.json in your project (or the global Cursor MCP settings):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["sshand"],
      "env": { "SSH_MCP_HOSTS_FILE": "/absolute/path/to/hosts.yaml" }
    }
  }
}

VS Code (GitHub Copilot Chat)

Add to .vscode/mcp.json or your workspace settings.json:

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "ssh": {
        "type": "stdio",
        "command": "uvx",
        "args": ["sshand"],
        "env": { "SSH_MCP_HOSTS_FILE": "/absolute/path/to/hosts.yaml" }
      }
    }
  }
}

OpenAI Agents SDK

# Terminal 1 — keep this running
sshand --transport http --port 8000

from agents import Agent
from agents.mcp import MCPServerStreamableHttp

ssh_server = MCPServerStreamableHttp(url="http://localhost:8000/mcp")
agent = Agent(name="ops-agent", mcp_servers=[ssh_server])

Hermes Agent

Hermes Agent (Nous Research) reads MCP server config from ~/.hermes/config.yaml under the mcp_servers key — same command/args/env shape as everywhere else:

mcp_servers:
  ssh:
    command: "uvx"
    args: ["sshand"]
    env:
      SSH_MCP_HOSTS_FILE: "/absolute/path/to/hosts.yaml"

If you installed SSHand from source instead of via uvx, point command at python and add ["/absolute/path/to/sshand/server.py"] as args, same as the Claude Desktop snippet above.

Start (or reload) Hermes to pick it up:

hermes chat          # fresh start
/reload-mcp          # or, from inside a running session

Hermes prefixes every tool with mcp_<server_name>_, so e.g. ssh_run_command shows up as mcp_ssh_ssh_run_command — you won't normally need the prefixed name, Hermes picks the right tool from your prompt on its own.

OpenClaw

OpenClaw doesn't take MCP servers directly — it calls them through MCPorter, a separate CLI that OpenClaw shells out to for schema discovery and tool calls. Install MCPorter first:

npm install -g mcporter

Then register SSHand with it:

mcporter config add ssh --command uvx --args sshand --env SSH_MCP_HOSTS_FILE=/absolute/path/to/hosts.yaml

That writes an entry to config/mcporter.json (or ~/.mcporter/mcporter.json for a machine-wide install) in the same mcpServers shape used everywhere else:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["sshand"],
      "env": { "SSH_MCP_HOSTS_FILE": "/absolute/path/to/hosts.yaml" }
    }
  }
}

Confirm MCPorter can see it and list the tools:

mcporter list ssh --schema

No further OpenClaw-side config is needed — just ask it to do something that needs SSH (e.g. "check disk usage on webserver") and OpenClaw will invoke mcporter call ssh.ssh_run_command ... on its own.

Any other MCP client (HTTP)

sshand --transport http --port 8000

MCP endpoint: http://localhost:8000/mcp

For remote access, put a reverse proxy (nginx / Caddy) in front with TLS. Never expose port 8000 directly on a public interface.

Host inventory

Hosts are stored in hosts.yaml (set a different path with the SSH_MCP_HOSTS_FILE env var). You can edit the file directly or let your agent call ssh_add_host.

Copy hosts.yaml.example to hosts.yaml to get started:

cp hosts.yaml.example hosts.yaml

Auth types

Key file — most common, most secure:

auth:
  type: key
  key_path: ~/.ssh/id_rsa       # ~ is expanded automatically
  passphrase: null              # set if the key is encrypted

Password — convenient for dev/test, avoid on internet-facing servers:

auth:
  type: password
  password: s3cr3t

SSH agent — no credentials stored at all, delegates to the running ssh-agent:

auth:
  type: agent

Available tools

Example conversations

"What servers do you have access to?" → ssh_list_hosts

"Check disk usage on webserver" → ssh_run_command(alias='webserver', command='df -h')

"Read the nginx config on the web box" → ssh_read_file(alias='webserver', remote_path='/etc/nginx/nginx.conf')

"Tail the last 100 lines of syslog on bastion" → ssh_run_command(alias='bastion', command='tail -n 100 /var/log/syslog')

"Deploy this config file to devbox" → ssh_write_file(alias='devbox', remote_path='/etc/myapp/config.yaml', content='...')

"Download today's DB backup from webserver" → ssh_download_file(alias='webserver', remote_path='/backups/db-today.sql.gz', local_path='/tmp/db-today.sql.gz')

CLI reference

sshand [subcommand] [options]

Subcommands:
  setup                  Interactive first-run wizard

Options:
  --transport {stdio,http}   Transport (default: stdio)
  --port INT                 HTTP port (default: 8000)
  --host STR                 HTTP bind address (default: 127.0.0.1)

Examples:
  sshand                    # start stdio server
  sshand setup              # first-run wizard
  sshand --transport http   # start HTTP server on :8000

Security notes

• Keep hosts.yaml out of version control if it contains passwords — it is excluded by the included .gitignore. Copy hosts.yaml.example to hosts.yaml to get started.

• Prefer key-based or agent auth over password auth for any internet-facing host.

• The HTTP transport binds to 127.0.0.1 by default.

• When exposing the HTTP server publicly (for Claude.ai / ChatGPT web), use TLS and consider adding authentication via a reverse proxy.

• ssh_run_command is marked destructiveHint: true — MCP clients that respect annotations will prompt before running potentially dangerous commands.

Project structure

sshand/
├── server.py           # FastMCP server — all 11 tools + CLI entry point
├── ssh_client.py       # Async paramiko wrapper (command exec + SFTP)
├── host_config.py      # YAML host inventory manager
├── setup_wizard.py     # Interactive first-run setup wizard
├── platform_utils.py   # Windows SSH agent helpers
├── hosts.yaml.example  # Safe template — copy to hosts.yaml and fill in your values
├── hosts.yaml          # Your SSH targets (gitignored — copy from hosts.yaml.example)
├── INTEGRATIONS.md     # Guide: Claude.ai and ChatGPT native extensions
├── pyproject.toml      # Package metadata + pip/uvx install config
├── requirements.txt    # Plain pip install fallback
└── README.md