使用说明
mcp-ssh-multi
MCP server for managing multiple SSH servers through AI assistants. Provides 11 tools for remote command execution, file operations, and system monitoring.
Current version: 0.4.0
Features
- Multi-server management — Configure and manage multiple SSH servers from a single YAML file
- Connection pooling — Automatic connection reuse with per-server locks and retry on stale connections
- Bounded command output — Streams stdout/stderr with a configurable combined memory limit
- Timeout cleanup — Terminates timed-out remote processes and explicitly closes their SSH channels
- 11 MCP tools — Execute commands, transfer files, read/write files, tail logs, list processes
- Two transports — stdio (for local MCP clients) and streamable-http (for web/remote)
- Cloudflare Tunnel compatible — Deploy behind a tunnel for remote access
- MCP tool annotations — Hints for destructive, read-only, idempotent, and open-world operations
- MCP resources —
ssh://serversresource for listing configured servers - Pagination — Directory listings support
limit/offsetfor large directories - Input validation — Path and filter sanitization to prevent command injection
- Structured errors — Consistent error responses with codes, messages, and suggestions
Installation
Using uv (recommended)
uv tool install mcp-ssh-multi
Using pip
pip install mcp-ssh-multi
Using uvx (one-shot)
uvx --from mcp-ssh-multi ssh-mcp
From source
git clone https://github.com/gilberth/mcp-ssh-multi.git
cd mcp-ssh-multi
uv sync
Configuration
1. SSH Servers (ssh_servers.yaml)
Create a ssh_servers.yaml file with your server definitions:
servers:
proxmox:
host: 192.168.1.100
port: 22
username: root
key_file: ~/.ssh/id_rsa
description: "Proxmox VE hypervisor"
truenas:
host: 192.168.1.101
port: 22
username: root
password: "my-password" # or use key_file
description: "TrueNAS storage server"
2. Environment Variables (.env)
Copy .env.example to .env and customize:
cp .env.example .env
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
SSH_SERVERS_FILE |
ssh_servers.yaml |
Path to servers config |
SSH_TIMEOUT |
30 |
Default command timeout (seconds) |
SSH_MAX_OUTPUT_BYTES |
16777216 |
Combined stdout/stderr retention limit per command |
LOG_LEVEL |
INFO |
Logging level |
MCP_PORT |
8086 |
HTTP server port |
MCP_SECRET_PATH |
/mcp |
HTTP endpoint path |
Usage
stdio mode (local MCP clients)
ssh-mcp
Or with uvx:
uvx --from mcp-ssh-multi ssh-mcp
HTTP mode (web/remote MCP clients)
ssh-mcp-web
The server will listen on http://0.0.0.0:8086/mcp by default.
MCP Client Configuration
Add to your MCP client config (e.g., Claude Desktop):
{
"mcpServers": {
"ssh": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["--from", "mcp-ssh-multi", "ssh-mcp"],
"env": {
"SSH_SERVERS_FILE": "/path/to/ssh_servers.yaml"
}
}
}
}
For HTTP mode:
{
"mcpServers": {
"ssh": {
"url": "http://localhost:8086/mcp"
}
}
}
Tool Reference
Connection Management
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
ssh_list_servers |
List all configured servers with connection status |
ssh_disconnect |
Disconnect from a specific server |
Command Execution
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
ssh_execute |
Execute a shell command on a remote server |
ssh_execute streams stdout and stderr concurrently and retains at most
SSH_MAX_OUTPUT_BYTES bytes across both streams. If the limit is exceeded, the
remote process is terminated and the response includes "truncated": true.
Commands which exceed their timeout are terminated, escalated to a kill when
necessary, and have their SSH process channel explicitly closed.
File Operations
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
ssh_upload |
Upload a local file to a remote server |
ssh_download |
Download a file from a remote server |
ssh_file_exists |
Check if a file/directory exists on a server |
ssh_list_dir |
List contents of a remote directory (supports pagination with limit/offset) |
ssh_read_file |
Read a text file from a remote server |
ssh_write_file |
Write content to a file on a remote server |
System Monitoring
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
ssh_tail_log |
Tail a log file on a remote server |
ssh_process_list |
List running processes (optionally filtered) |
MCP Resources
The server exposes the following MCP resources:
| Resource URI | Description |
|---|---|
ssh://servers |
List of all configured SSH servers with connection status |
Changelog
v0.4.0
- Bounded command output —
ssh_executereads stdout and stderr concurrently in chunks and enforces the combinedSSH_MAX_OUTPUT_BYTESlimit - Timeout process cleanup — Timed-out commands are terminated, escalated to
kill()when necessary, and their SSH channels are explicitly closed - Truncation reporting — Command responses expose
truncatedwhen output exceeds the configured limit - Robust transport cleanup — Connections which fail to close gracefully are aborted and invalidated instead of being returned to the pool
- Memory-efficient pagination — SFTP directory pagination retains only the requested page while still reporting the total entry count
- Reproducible dependency ranges — FastMCP, MCP, and AsyncSSH are constrained to the audited major versions
v0.2.0
- Per-server connection locks — Replaced global lock with per-server async locks for better concurrency
- Connection retry — Automatic single retry on stale/lost SSH connections
- MCP tool annotations — Added
destructiveHint,readOnlyHint,idempotentHint,openWorldHintto all tools - MCP resource — Added
ssh://serversresource endpoint - Directory pagination —
ssh_list_dirnow supportslimitandoffsetparameters - Input validation — Path sanitization for
ssh_tail_logand filter validation forssh_process_list - Structured errors — Consistent error format with
ErrorCodeenum across all tools - Dynamic versioning — Version sourced from
importlib.metadatainstead of hardcoded strings - Test suite — Added tests for pagination, retry logic, input validation, and version consistency
v0.1.1
- Initial public release with 11 SSH tools, stdio and HTTP transports
Production Deployment (LXC + Cloudflare Tunnel)
Full deployment guide for running mcp-ssh-multi as a systemd service behind a Cloudflare Tunnel on a Proxmox LXC container.
Prerequisites
- A Proxmox LXC container (Debian 12/13)
- A Cloudflare account with a domain
uvandcloudflaredinstalled on the LXC
1. Install dependencies
# Install uv
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
# Install cloudflared
curl -L https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared/releases/latest/download/cloudflared-linux-amd64.deb \
-o cloudflared.deb && dpkg -i cloudflared.deb
2. Create SSH servers config
mkdir -p /ssh-mcp
cat > /ssh-mcp/ssh_servers.yaml << 'EOF'
servers:
my-server:
host: 192.168.1.100
port: 22
username: root
password: "my-password" # or use key_file
description: "My server"
EOF
3. Create the Cloudflare Tunnel
# Login to Cloudflare (opens browser)
cloudflared tunnel login
# Create the named tunnel
cloudflared tunnel create ssh-mcp
# Route DNS to your domain
cloudflared tunnel route dns ssh-mcp ssh-mcp.yourdomain.com
4. Configure the tunnel
The tunnel create command outputs the tunnel UUID (e.g. 2687c640-38df-40f9-...) and creates a credentials file at /root/.cloudflared/<TUNNEL-ID>.json. If you need to find it later, run cloudflared tunnel list.
# Replace <TUNNEL-ID> with the UUID from "cloudflared tunnel create" output
cat > /root/.cloudflared/config.yml << 'EOF'
tunnel: <TUNNEL-ID>
credentials-file: /root/.cloudflared/<TUNNEL-ID>.json
ingress:
- hostname: ssh-mcp.yourdomain.com
service: http://localhost:8086
- service: http_status:404
EOF
5. Create systemd services
mcp-ssh-multi service:
cat > /etc/systemd/system/mcp-ssh-multi.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=MCP SSH Multi Server
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=simple
Environment=SSH_SERVERS_FILE=/ssh-mcp/ssh_servers.yaml
Environment=MCP_SECRET_PATH=/your-secret-path
ExecStart=/root/.local/bin/uvx --from mcp-ssh-multi@latest ssh-mcp-web
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF
cloudflared service:
cloudflared service install
Enable and start both:
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable --now mcp-ssh-multi
systemctl enable --now cloudflared
6. Verify
# Check services
systemctl status mcp-ssh-multi
systemctl status cloudflared
# Test the endpoint
curl -s -X POST "https://ssh-mcp.yourdomain.com/your-secret-path" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2024-11-05","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"test","version":"1.0"}}}'
7. Configure your MCP client
{
"mcpServers": {
"ssh": {
"type": "remote",
"url": "https://ssh-mcp.yourdomain.com/your-secret-path"
}
}
}
Service management
# View logs
journalctl -u mcp-ssh-multi -f
journalctl -u cloudflared -f
# Restart services
systemctl restart mcp-ssh-multi
systemctl restart cloudflared
Environment Variables
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
SSH_SERVERS_FILE |
ssh_servers.yaml |
Path to servers config |
SSH_TIMEOUT |
30 |
Default command timeout (seconds) |
SSH_MAX_OUTPUT_BYTES |
16777216 |
Combined stdout/stderr retention limit per command |
LOG_LEVEL |
INFO |
Logging level |
MCP_PORT |
8086 |
HTTP server port |
MCP_SECRET_PATH |
/mcp |
HTTP endpoint path (use a secret value) |
Development
# Install with dev dependencies
uv sync --group dev
# Run linting
uv run ruff check src/ tests/ --fix
uv run ruff format src/ tests/
# Run type checking
uv run mypy src/
# Run tests
uv run pytest tests/ -v
License
MIT
