How do I connect a Command Line MCP server to Claude Desktop or Cursor?

To install a Command Line MCP server, select your desired server from the directory, copy the JSON configuration snippet, and add it to your client config file (such as claude_desktop_config.json or .cursor/mcp.json).

Are Command Line MCP servers free to use?

Yes, all Command Line MCP servers listed in this directory are open-source and free to integrate into compatible Model Context Protocol clients.

23 Command Line MCP Servers

Q: What are Command Line Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers?

Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers in the Command Line category allow AI assistants (such as Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, and Cline) to connect directly to command line tools, APIs, and databases without manual copy-pasting.

Discover 23 Command Line MCP servers for AI agents. Browse, compare, and install Model Context Protocol tools that connect Claude, Cursor, and other clients to command line capabilities. Popular picks include MCP Ssh Manager, Wayback Machine, Sysknife.

Open in interactive directory Best Command Line & Terminal servers →

MCP Ssh Manager

bvisible

Manage multiple SSH servers from one MCP: command execution, file transfer/rsync, database dump/import/query (MySQL/PostgreSQL/MongoDB), backups & restore, health monitoring, persistent sessions, tunnels, ProxyJump/bastion, and opt-in per-server security modes (readonly/restricted) with audit log. Linux, macOS & Windows OpenSSH.

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Wayback Machine

MCP server and CLI tool for interacting with the Wayback Machine without API keys

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Sysknife

lacs-project

Security-hardened MCP server for Linux system administration via 189 typed actions instead of shell strings, with an Ed25519-signed hash-chain audit log, one-time TTL approval receipts, and automatic rollback. Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex CLI.

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Sage

PsYcGoD

Local-first CLI and MCP wrapper for AI coding agents. Routes shell commands through sage run --, stores command history locally, and returns compressed terminal output to reduce context noise.

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Forge

ferodrigop

Terminal MCP server for AI coding agents with persistent PTY sessions, ring-buffer incremental reads, headless xterm screen capture, multi-agent orchestration, and a real-time web dashboard.

4 0 0

Rootpilot MCP

Easton-OU

Safe, read-only SSH diagnostics for Linux/Docker servers: a fixed 38-command whitelist (no arbitrary execution), secret redaction, per-command timeouts. Collects evidence; your model does the reasoning. npx @rootpilot/mcp-ssh-diagnose

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Terminal History MCP

HasanJahidul

Full-text search over your shell history (zsh / bash / fish) via SQLite FTS5. Local-only. 11-pattern secret redaction runs BEFORE insert. Captures cwd / exit code / duration via opt-in shell hook. Tools: searchhistory, recentindir, failedcommands, commandchains, reindex.

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When

WhenLabs-org

Developer toolkit: auto-detect stack for AI context files, catch port conflicts, validate .env schemas, spot docs drift, audit dependency licenses, and time coding tasks — 7 MCP tools, one install.

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MCP Tmux

laszlopere

Universal tmux driver: sessions, windows, panes, keystrokes, and pane capture — local or remote over SSH. Curated tools plus a raw tmuxcommand passthrough; works against tmux 1.8+. Shared, visible sessions for pair-programming with the agent. uvx mcp-tmux.

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Execkit

blinkingbit-oss

Stateful, structured, auditable shell sessions for AI agents over local, SSH, and Docker. Secret redaction, output budgeting, SSH host-key verification, and a loopback read-only browser viewer that streams the live transcript.

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Tui MCP

nvms

What Chrome DevTools MCP is for the browser, tui-mcp is for the terminal. Launch, screenshot, and interact with any TUI app.

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MCP Remote Ssh

faizbawa

Full SSH access for AI agents with secret-safe environment injection and automatic output redaction. Persistent sessions, structured execution, SFTP, port forwarding — secrets are fed via stdin (invisible to ps) and scrubbed from all tool responses before reaching the LLM. uvx mcp-remote-ssh

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Cygnus Ssh MCP

cygnussystems

MCP server for SSH-based control of remote Linux, macOS, and Windows servers with 46 purpose-built tools instead of one generic command-runner: line-level file editing (no download/edit/upload round-trip), background task launch/monitor/kill, real sudo support, host aliases, recursive directory ops, archive create/extract, and full Unicode via SFTP (avoids PowerShell OEM code page corruption on Windows targets). pip install cygnus-ssh-mcp or uvx cygnus-ssh-mcp.

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Hop

danmartuszewski

Fast SSH connection manager with TUI dashboard and MCP server for discovering, searching, and executing commands on remote hosts.

4 0 1

Backburner

Run long shell commands as background tasks: start them, keep working, collect the results later

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Pty MCP

raychao-oao

Interactive PTY sessions for AI agents — local shells, SSH with persistent sessions (ai-tmux daemon for attach/detach), and serial ports. Single Go binary, no tmux dependency.

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Fauxnix

20000419

bash for AI agents on Windows via deterministic bash→PowerShell translation — no WSL, VM, or bash toolchain. MCP bash tool with GNU-style output, bash-style errors, coreutils exit codes, session-persisted cwd/env across calls, and per-file UTF-8/GBK sniffing (GBK files grep correctly, unlike Git Bash). Unsupported bash constructs fail loudly with the construct named; native commands (git/node/npm) pass through with argv quoting. npm install -g fauxnix-cli; verified with Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Kimi Code and Qwen Code.

0 0 0

Localhost MCP

HasanJahidul

Inspect, manage, and kill local dev servers. Lists what's listening on each port (pid, framework, project, uptime, memory, cpu), diagnoses port conflicts with free alternatives nearby, finds zombie processes, and kills by pid or port with a dry-run default.

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Servonaut

zb-ss

Manage AWS EC2, Hetzner, OVH and custom SSH servers: run commands, fetch logs, CloudWatch/CloudTrail queries, fleet health snapshots, IP banning, S3 — with readonly/standard/dangerous guard tiers and a JSONL audit trail.

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Infrabroker

luisgf

SSH & Kubernetes access broker where the model never touches a credential: a separate signer mints per-operation ephemeral SSH certificates and bound ServiceAccount tokens, with a per-command allow/deny/approval firewall (POSIX-sh AST), dry-run, human-in-the-loop approvals, session recording and an Ed25519-chained audit log. Self-hosted Go binaries, GPLv3.

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Backscroll

soren-achebe

Answers "what did that command print?" from your real terminal history: a per-command PTY session recorder (OSC 133) stores every command's full output, exit code, cwd, and duration in local SQLite/FTS5, and the MCP server searches, retrieves, and diffs those outputs — secret redaction on by default before anything reaches the model.

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Claude Terminal MCP

LukeLamb

Terminal, filesystem, and background-job tools for Claude Desktop on Linux/macOS. Zero npm deps, pure Node.

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MCP Linux Tools

gerard-kanters

Administer a Linux server from an MCP client such as Cursor or VS Code: read files and tail logs, check/reload/restart systemd services, manage cron jobs inside a dedicated crontab section, run read-only MySQL queries, drive WP-CLI on WordPress sites, run safe Git commands, and execute sandboxed Python. Directories, services and WordPress sites are allowlisted in config.json, and every tool returns a uniform {success, data, error, meta} response. Runs as a systemd service over HTTP.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Command Line MCP Servers

Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers in the Command Line category allow AI assistants (such as Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, and Cline) to connect directly to command line tools, APIs, and databases without manual copy-pasting.