SSH MCP

A cross-platform MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that lets Claude Code — or any MCP client — read, write, edit, search, run commands, transfer files, and use git on a remote Linux server over SSH. The server runs on your local machine; nothing is installed on the remote.

It uses a pure-Python SSH transport (Paramiko), so it runs natively on Windows, macOS, and Linux — no WSL, no native ssh client, no SSH ControlMaster. Authentication uses your SSH key / agent / ~/.ssh/config; credentials never pass through the MCP channel.

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Why

Sometimes the remote box is great for the code but can't run the agent — e.g. the network blocks the model's API, or you don't want to install/authenticate an agent on a shared server. SSH MCP flips it: the agent runs locally (with internet + your credentials) and reaches into the remote host over plain SSH.

┌──────────────┐    MCP (stdio)    ┌──────────────┐   SSH / SFTP    ┌───────────────┐
│  Claude Code  │ ◄───────────────► │  ssh-mcp      │ ◄─────────────► │ Remote server  │
│   (local)     │   tool calls      │  (Paramiko)   │   exec + files  │ (Linux / bash) │
└──────────────┘                   └──────────────┘                 └───────────────┘

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Features

• 22 MCP tools — files, line-edits, commands, background jobs, search, git, and binary-safe file transfer.
• Binary-safe upload/download over SFTP — .db, images, archives, etc., streamed (large files don't load into memory).
• Zero remote install — uses standard tools already on the remote.
• Flexible auth — keys, ssh-agent, ~/.ssh/config, ProxyCommand.
• Atomic writes, output truncation, binary-file detection, background jobs.

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Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• An SSH key / agent / ~/.ssh/config entry that can reach the remote host
• uv (recommended) or pip
• Claude Code (optional, to use it as an MCP server)

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Install

git clone <your-repo-url> ssh-mcp
cd ssh-mcp
uv tool install .          # puts the `ssh-mcp` command on your PATH

Or with pip:

python -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate     # Windows: .\.venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -e .

Configure

Create ~/.config/ssh-mcp/config.yaml from the example and edit it:

mkdir -p ~/.config/ssh-mcp
cp config.example.yaml ~/.config/ssh-mcp/config.yaml

# Windows (PowerShell)
mkdir "$env:USERPROFILE\.config\ssh-mcp" -Force
copy config.example.yaml "$env:USERPROFILE\.config\ssh-mcp\config.yaml"

Minimal config:

default_host: myserver
hosts:
  myserver:
    ssh_host: server.example.com   # hostname/IP or a ~/.ssh/config alias
    user: jdoe
    key_path: "~/.ssh/id_ed25519"  # omit to use agent / default keys / ssh_config
    default_cwd: "~/project"

Register with Claude Code

claude mcp add --scope user ssh-mcp -- ssh-mcp

Then run claude and ask: "List the files in ~/project on the remote server."

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Tools

Commands: ssh_run · ssh_run_background · ssh_job_status Connection: ssh_check_connection Files: ssh_read_file · ssh_write_file · ssh_patch_file · ssh_append_file · ssh_insert_lines · ssh_replace_lines · ssh_list_dir · ssh_file_info · ssh_mkdir · ssh_move · ssh_delete Transfer (binary-safe, SFTP): ssh_upload · ssh_download Search: ssh_grep · ssh_find_files Git: ssh_git_status · ssh_git_diff · ssh_git_log

Text vs binary: ssh_write_file is for text (UTF-8). For binary files (.db, images, archives) use ssh_upload / ssh_download, which use SFTP and preserve bytes exactly.

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Configuration reference

Key	Default	Meaning
ssh_host	— (required)	hostname/IP or ~/.ssh/config alias
user	ssh_config / system	SSH username
port	22	SSH port
key_path	—	private key file (else agent / default keys / ssh_config)
password	—	password auth (discouraged)
use_ssh_config	true	read ~/.ssh/config for this host
strict_host_key_checking	false	reject unknown host keys
proxy_command	—	ProxyCommand for bastion / IAP
connect_timeout	20	connect timeout (s)
preamble	—	shell sourced before each command
default_cwd	~	working directory
command_timeout / file_timeout	30 / 60	timeouts (s)
max_file_size	10485760	text read/write cap (binary transfer is unbounded)
max_output_lines	5000	command output truncation

Config path: ~/.config/ssh-mcp/config.yaml (override with SSH_MCP_CONFIG or ssh-mcp --config <path>).

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Development

uv sync --extra dev
uv run pytest -q

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License

AGPL-3.0 — see LICENSE and NOTICE. This project is a modified version of a third-party AGPL-3.0 work and remains under the same license.