SSH MCP Server

Overview

The SSH MCP Server provides a Model Context Protocol‑compliant gateway that lets large language models and other AI assistants control remote machines over SSH. Instead of writing custom scripts or exposing raw shell access, developers can expose a single tool that accepts natural‑language prompts, translates them into shell commands, and runs those commands securely on Linux or Windows hosts. This solves the problem of bridging conversational AI with system administration tasks while keeping authentication, command length, and timeout controls in the hands of the server operator.

The server is built with TypeScript and the official MCP SDK, ensuring type safety and compatibility across any MCP‑ready client such as Claude Desktop or Cursor. It supports both password and key‑based authentication, making it flexible for a wide range of deployment scenarios—from personal home servers to enterprise data centers. A core advantage is its configurable timeout protection: each command can be bounded by a user‑specified duration, after which the server attempts to terminate the hanging process before closing the SSH session. This protects against runaway scripts or network stalls without requiring manual intervention.

Key capabilities include:

• Remote command execution via the tool, exposing a simple JSON schema that accepts a single string.
• Command length limits configurable per deployment, preventing accidental or malicious over‑long inputs from exhausting resources.
• Graceful timeout handling that attempts to kill the underlying process before tearing down the SSH connection, preserving server stability.
• Cross‑platform support for both Linux and Windows targets, enabling a single MCP instance to manage heterogeneous infrastructure.

Typical use cases involve automated deployment pipelines where an AI assistant can, for example, pull the latest code, run tests, or restart services in response to natural language queries. In a DevOps context, the server can be integrated into chat‑based tooling so that engineers can ask for status reports or trigger rebuilds without leaving their conversational interface. For educational environments, students can interact with remote lab machines through a friendly AI front‑end while the MCP server enforces security policies.

By abstracting SSH details behind a clean, protocol‑driven API, the SSH MCP Server empowers developers to embed powerful remote execution capabilities into their AI workflows. It offers a scalable, secure, and developer‑friendly bridge between natural language commands and the command line, making it a standout tool for anyone looking to automate system administration with conversational AI.