Cloud Tools vs ParallelSandbox

A side-by-side look at the Cloud Tools and ParallelSandbox MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.

Cloud Tools logoCloud ToolsCloud Platforms · Local subprocess (stdio)Multi-cloud cost, inventory and waste analysis over MCP: AWS, GCP, Cloudflare and OVH.61GoodAuth: otherParallelSandbox logoParallelSandboxCloud Platforms · Local subprocess (stdio)Remote Linux boxes for coding agents: Docker, a browser, screenshots, logs, human takeover.61GoodAuth: oauth 2.0

Verdict: choose Cloud Tools for cloud platforms work as a local process; choose ParallelSandbox for cloud platforms as a local process. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.

Which MCP server should you choose?

Cloud Tools logoChoose Cloud Tools when

  • You need dedicated capabilities in the Cloud Platforms domain.
  • You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
  • Its auth model fits you: other.
  • You have the keys it needs: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_PROFILE, GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS, CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN, CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID, OVH_APPLICATION_KEY, OVH_CONSUMER_KEY.
  • You want tools like compare_costs, get_commitments, get_costs.
Explore Cloud Tools

ParallelSandbox logoChoose ParallelSandbox when

  • You need dedicated capabilities in the Cloud Platforms domain.
  • You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
  • Its auth model fits you: OAuth 2.0.
  • You want tools like parallelsandbox_connect.
Explore ParallelSandbox

Feature & specification comparison

Rows where the two servers differ are marked.

SpecCloud Tools logoCloud ToolsParallelSandbox logoParallelSandbox
CategoryCloud PlatformsCloud Platforms
Quality signal61/100 · Good61/100 · Good
Install commandConfirmedConfirmed
TransportLocal subprocess (stdio)Local subprocess (stdio)
AuthotherOAuth 2.0
PricingFreeFree
Required env varsAWS_ACCESS_KEY_IDAWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEYAWS_PROFILEGOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALSCLOUDFLARE_API_TOKENCLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_IDOVH_APPLICATION_KEYOVH_CONSUMER_KEYNone listed
Verified ownerCommunity listingCommunity listing
GitHub stars00
Directory activity 3 views 0 installs 0 upvotes 2 views 0 installs 0 upvotes
Tools71

Tools & capabilities

Cloud Tools tools 7

  • compare_costsThis period against the same day window of the previous month, so a partial month does not read as a fall. AWS and GCP only. GCP needs credentials.gcp.billing_table.
  • get_commitmentsCommitments you are paying for, and whether you are consuming them, over the last 30 days. AWS: Savings Plans utilisation, coverage of eligible spend, and the saving a further commitment would give. GCP: committed use discounts with their expiry. Not implemented for Cloudflare or OVH, which sell no commitments.
  • get_costsCloud spend. AWS: by service over a date range, from Cost Explorer; pass group_by="data_transfer" for transfer cost by usage type. GCP: by service from the BigQuery billing export, which credentials.gcp.billing_table must name — without it you get budget amounts, not spend. Cloudflare: subscriptions and zone plan costs. OVH: the 6 most recent invoices.
  • get_cross_cloud_summaryOne cost and waste report over every cloud you pass credentials for, with a grand total. Omit a cloud's credentials to skip it.
  • get_inventoryWhat exists. GCP: GCE instances, disks, addresses, snapshots, forwarding rules, GKE clusters with node pools, Cloud SQL, Cloud Functions, Cloud Run, GCS buckets, Cloud NAT, Cloud IDS, Artifact Registry, VPN gateways, subnets, PSC endpoints and Cloud Logging ingestion, with a per-project summary. Cloudflare: zones with plan and price, DNS records split proxied against dns-only, certificates with hosts and expiry, and Workers with invocation counts. OVH: instances and active services with renewal dates and monthly cost. Not implemented for AWS.
  • get_recommendationsThe cloud provider's own optimisation suggestions. GCP: the Recommender API across every zone and region — idle VMs, machine type rightsizing, idle disks and addresses, idle and oversized Cloud SQL. Not implemented for the others; AWS Compute Optimizer is read as part of get_waste instead.
  • get_wasteWhat is wasted, with the monthly cost of each finding and the utilisation evidence behind it. AWS: idle and oversized EC2 and RDS measured from CloudWatch CPU series, stopped instances, orphaned volumes and snapshots, unused AMIs and Elastic IPs, idle load balancers and NAT gateways, DynamoDB and ElastiCache, and log groups with no retention. GCP: idle and oversized instances, orphaned disks, unattached addresses, snapshots over 90 days, idle Cloud SQL, GKE clusters with no nodes, Cloud Functions and Cloud Run with no invocations, buckets with no lifecycle rule. Not implemented for Cloudflare or OVH.

ParallelSandbox tools 1

  • parallelsandbox_connectConnect ParallelSandbox, or check sign-in status. If sign-in is pending, show the person the returned link to sign in and allow their AI tool. Call again after they finish.

Ready-to-paste client configs

Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.

Cloud Tools

mcpServers (Claude Desktop / Cursor)
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cloud-tools": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@munhq/cloud-tools"
      ],
      "env": {
        "AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID": "YOUR_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID_HERE",
        "AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY": "YOUR_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY_HERE",
        "AWS_PROFILE": "YOUR_AWS_PROFILE_HERE",
        "GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS": "YOUR_GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS_HERE",
        "CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN": "YOUR_CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN_HERE",
        "CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID": "YOUR_CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID_HERE",
        "OVH_APPLICATION_KEY": "YOUR_OVH_APPLICATION_KEY_HERE",
        "OVH_CONSUMER_KEY": "YOUR_OVH_CONSUMER_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

ParallelSandbox

mcpServers (Claude Desktop / Cursor)
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "parallelsandbox-2": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "parallelsandbox-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Frequently asked questions

Cloud Tools is categorized under Cloud Platforms and uses a local stdio subprocess. ParallelSandbox belongs to Cloud Platforms and uses a local stdio subprocess. Pick Cloud Tools for cloud platforms work and ParallelSandbox for cloud platforms.

Copy the mcpServers block from the config section on this page into your client's config (for example claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json), then fully restart the client.

Cloud Tools is listed as free. Auth: other. ParallelSandbox is listed as free. Auth: oauth 2.0. If a server needs environment variables such as API keys, define them under the env key in your client's MCP config.

Yes. MCP clients support multiple servers: add cloud-tools and parallelsandbox-2 as separate keys in the same mcpServers object, and your assistant will call tools from either one.

On AllMCPs, Cloud Tools has a quality signal of 61/100 (Good) with 3 views, 0 installs and 0 GitHub stars. ParallelSandbox has 61/100 (Good) with 2 views, 0 installs and 0 GitHub stars.