servonaut 2.5.0

Interactive TUI for managing servers — SSH, SCP, scanning & more

Servonaut

A modern Terminal User Interface (TUI) for managing servers — SSH, SCP, scanning & more.

Quick Install

Linux / macOS:

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zb-ss/servonaut/master/install.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zb-ss/servonaut/master/install.ps1 | iex

Or install directly via pipx / pip:

pipx install servonaut

Manual install from source:

git clone https://github.com/zb-ss/servonaut.git
cd servonaut
pipx install .

Screenshots

Instance list with sidebar navigation, detail panel, and server metadata

Built-in AI assistant with MCP server integration for DevOps tasks

CloudWatch log browsing with Top IPs analysis, geolocation, and abuse scoring

Ban/unban IPs via WAF, Security Groups, or NACLs with audit trail

Features

• Interactive TUI with mouse and keyboard support powered by Textual
• Multi-provider — AWS EC2, OVHcloud (dedicated servers, VPS, Public Cloud), plus custom servers from any provider (DigitalOcean, Hetzner, on-prem, etc.) with full SSH/SCP support
• List and search instances across all AWS regions with OVH instances merged into the same view
• SSH into instances — launches in new terminal window with auto-detected emulator
• Run remote commands via overlay panel with real-time streaming output, persistent history, and saved command favorites
• Browse remote file systems — interactive file tree navigation
• SCP file transfer — upload/download files and directories
• Real-time log viewer — stream remote logs via tail -f with pause, search, and log switching
• Keyword-based server scanning — search file contents across instances
• CloudTrail event browser — browse AWS CloudTrail events with filters for region, time range, event name, and user
• CloudWatch Logs browser — browse AWS CloudWatch log groups with Top IPs analysis, IP geolocation lookup, and AbuseIPDB integration
• IP ban manager — ban IPs via AWS WAF, Security Groups, or NACLs with audit trail
• OVHcloud management — DNS zones, IP blocks and failover IPs, snapshots, block storage, billing and invoices, SSH keys, Public Cloud instance creation
• AI log analysis — analyze logs with OpenAI, Anthropic, or Ollama (local) with cost estimation
• Built-in AI chat — LLM assistant with tool-calling against your instances (powered by the same MCP tool surface below)
• MCP server for AI agents — Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, etc. Eighteen tools covering instance ops, OVH management, session introspection, and authenticated REST proxy. Guard system + JSONL audit trail.
• Servonaut Cloud account — optional servonaut login unlocks config sync across machines and the MCP relay
• MCP relay — servonaut connect (or the TUI autostart) keeps a Mercure SSE connection open so AI agents and team-mates can dispatch MCP tool calls to this machine over the internet. Tokens never leave the CLI; heartbeats every 30 s with automatic Mercure JWT refresh.
• Config sync — client-side-encrypted snapshots of your config.json pushed/pulled from servonaut.dev, paired with a passphrase you control
• Bastion host / jump server support via ProxyJump or ProxyCommand
• Per-host SSH tuning — extra_ssh_options per connection profile / custom server for legacy boxes (HostKeyAlgorithms=+ssh-rsa, custom keepalives, etc.)
• SSH key management with auto-discovery and per-instance configuration
• Instance caching with stale-while-revalidate for fast startup
• Auto-update check — notifies of new versions on startup, one-click update from the menu or servonaut --update
• Desktop shortcut — servonaut --install-desktop adds an app launcher entry (Linux/macOS)
• Fully configurable — all settings in ~/.servonaut/config.json

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• AWS CLI configured (~/.aws/credentials and ~/.aws/config)
• SSH client (standard on Linux/macOS, OpenSSH on Windows)
• pipx for isolated installation (recommended)

Your AWS credentials need ec2:DescribeInstances and ec2:DescribeRegions permissions. Additional permissions needed for optional features:

Feature	Required Permissions
CloudTrail browser	cloudtrail:LookupEvents
IP ban (WAF)	wafv2:GetIPSet, wafv2:UpdateIPSet
IP ban (Security Groups)	ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress, ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupIngress, ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups
IP ban (NACLs)	ec2:CreateNetworkAclEntry, ec2:DeleteNetworkAclEntry, ec2:DescribeNetworkAcls
CloudWatch Logs	logs:DescribeLogGroups, logs:FilterLogEvents
OVHcloud (optional)	OVH API credentials — 3-key (application key / secret / consumer key) or OAuth2. Set up via servonaut --setup-ovh or in Settings.

Usage

# Core
servonaut                         # Launch the TUI
servonaut --debug                 # Launch with debug logging to stderr
servonaut --update                # Check for updates and upgrade
servonaut --install-desktop       # Create desktop shortcut (Linux/macOS)
servonaut --setup-ovh             # Guided OVHcloud credential setup

# MCP server for AI agents
servonaut --mcp                   # Start as MCP server (stdio transport)
servonaut --mcp-install <agent>   # Auto-install into claude, opencode,
                                  # cursor, windsurf, vscode, or all

# Relay — keep this machine reachable for hosted AI agents + team-mates
servonaut connect                 # Foreground relay (Ctrl+C to stop)
servonaut connect --bg            # Detach; writes ~/.servonaut/relay.pid
servonaut connect --status        # Local + backend view with divergence warning
servonaut connect --stop          # SIGTERM the background listener
servonaut connect --reconnect     # Heal a stale SSE socket (stop+start)
servonaut connect --force-bg      # Take over from a TUI's in-process listener

The TUI also starts an in-process relay listener automatically once you log in — no need to run servonaut connect separately unless you want the connection to survive closing the TUI. See Servonaut Cloud account below.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Context	Key	Action
Main Menu	U	Update Servonaut (when update available)
Global	Q	Quit
Global	?	Help screen
Global	Escape	Go back / close
Instance List	/	Focus search
Instance List	R	Force-refresh from AWS
Instance List	S	SSH to selected instance
Instance List	B	Browse remote files
Instance List	C	Run command overlay
Instance List	T	SCP transfer
Instance List	Y	Copy IP to clipboard
Global	F2	Toggle AI chat panel
Anywhere	Mouse drag	Select text (auto-copies to clipboard)
Anywhere	Ctrl+C	Copy selected text
Command Overlay	Ctrl+C	Stop running command
Command Overlay	Ctrl+R	Command picker (saved + recent)
Command Overlay	Ctrl+S	Save command to favorites
Command Overlay	Up/Down	Command history
Log Viewer	P	Pause/resume streaming
Log Viewer	C	Clear output
Log Viewer	F	Find/search in output
Log Viewer	L	Switch log file

What You Can Do

Main Menu:

1. List Instances — View all EC2 + custom servers with search/filter
2. Manage SSH Keys — Configure default and per-instance SSH keys
3. Scan Servers — Run keyword scans across running instances
4. Custom Servers — Add/edit/remove non-AWS servers
5. CloudTrail Logs — Browse AWS CloudTrail events with filters
6. IP Ban Manager — Ban IPs via WAF, Security Groups, or NACLs
7. CloudWatch Logs — Browse AWS CloudWatch log groups with Top IPs analysis, action filter (All/Allowed/Blocked), IP geolocation and abuse lookup (i)
8. Settings — Configure all application settings including AI provider and AbuseIPDB API key

Server Actions (after selecting an instance): Browse Files, Run Command, SSH Connect, SCP Transfer, View Scan Results, View Logs (tail -f), AI Analysis, Ban IP

Command history persists across sessions — use Ctrl+R to search history and saved commands, Ctrl+S to save favorites.

Instance Caching

Scenario	Behavior
First launch (no cache)	Fetches from AWS with progress indicator
Restart within TTL (default 1h)	Instant load from cache
Restart after TTL	Shows stale data immediately, refreshes in background
Press R	Force-refresh from AWS

Configuration

All configuration lives in ~/.servonaut/config.json, created automatically on first run.

See Configuration Guide for the full reference including connection profiles, custom servers, scan rules, and match conditions.

Legacy / special-case SSH hosts: connection profiles and custom servers both accept an extra_ssh_options array that appends arbitrary -o KEY=VALUE flags per host — use it to talk to ancient OpenSSH boxes (HostKeyAlgorithms=+ssh-rsa), tune keepalives, or set connect timeouts without weakening your global SSH defaults. See Per-host SSH tuning.

Secrets: API keys in config.json support $ENV_VAR and file:~/.secrets/key syntax so the config file stays secret-free. You can also create ~/.secrets/servonaut.env with KEY=value pairs — loaded automatically on startup.

Optional Dependencies

# AI log analysis (OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama)
pipx inject servonaut httpx
# or: pip install 'servonaut[ai]'

# MCP server for AI agents
pipx inject servonaut mcp
# or: pip install 'servonaut[mcp]'

# Install everything
pip install 'servonaut[all]'

MCP Server for AI Agents

Servonaut includes an integrated MCP server that exposes tools to AI agents like Claude Code:

# Auto-install into a coding agent
servonaut --mcp-install claude     # Claude Code
servonaut --mcp-install cursor     # Cursor
servonaut --mcp-install windsurf   # Windsurf
servonaut --mcp-install opencode   # OpenCode
servonaut --mcp-install vscode     # VS Code Copilot
servonaut --mcp-install all        # All of the above

# Run MCP server manually (stdio transport)
servonaut --mcp

Available tools:

Category	Tools
Instance ops	list_instances, check_status, get_server_info, run_command, get_logs, transfer_file
Session / backend	whoami, api_request
Relay	relay_status, relay_reconnect, mcp_tool_call
OVH	ovh_monitoring, ovh_list_ips, ovh_firewall_rules, ovh_ssh_keys, ovh_snapshots, ovh_dns_records, ovh_billing, ovh_invoices

• whoami returns session metadata — the OAuth bearer is never exposed.
• api_request lets an agent make authenticated REST calls against servonaut.dev with automatic 401 refresh and a CLI-side rate limit (30/min). The bearer stays on the CLI.
• mcp_tool_call wraps a JSON-RPC 2.0 tools/call envelope against the hosted MCP at mcp.servonaut.dev — used for premium tools when your plan includes them.

Guard levels: readonly (list/status/introspection only), standard (read + safe commands + authenticated REST), dangerous (all operations). Dangerous commands (rm -rf, shutdown, reboot, etc.) are always blocked regardless of guard level. All operations are logged to ~/.servonaut/mcp_audit.jsonl.

Set Up with an AI Agent

Paste this prompt into Claude Code, Cursor, or any AI coding assistant to get Servonaut installed and configured automatically:

Copy-paste setup prompt

Install and configure Servonaut, a TUI for managing servers.

1. Install: `pipx install servonaut` (or `pip install servonaut`)
2. Install optional deps: `pipx inject servonaut httpx mcp` (for AI analysis + MCP server)
3. Run `servonaut` once to generate ~/.servonaut/config.json
4. Read ~/.servonaut/config.json and help me configure:
   - AWS regions to scan (default scans all, set `regions` array to limit)
   - Default SSH username (`default_username`, default "ec2-user")
   - Cache TTL (`cache_ttl_seconds`, default 3600)
   - Terminal emulator if not auto-detected (`terminal_emulator`)
5. If I use bastion/jump hosts, help me set up `connection_profiles` and `connection_rules`
6. If I have non-AWS servers, help me add them to `custom_servers`
7. If I want AI log analysis, help me configure `ai_provider` (openai/anthropic/ollama)
   - API keys support $ENV_VAR syntax so they don't go in the config file
8. Install MCP server into your coding agent: `servonaut --mcp-install claude` (or `cursor`, `windsurf`, `opencode`, `vscode`, `all`)

After setup, launch with `servonaut` and walk me through the key features.

Servonaut Cloud account

Optional — Servonaut works fully offline against your own AWS / OVH credentials. Signing in at servonaut.dev unlocks:

• Config sync — push/pull an encrypted snapshot of your config.json between machines. The passphrase never leaves your client; the server only sees ciphertext.
• MCP relay — a Mercure SSE channel that lets AI agents and team-mates dispatch MCP tool calls to this machine. While the relay is connected, https://servonaut.dev/account reports your CLI as online, and hosted agents can reach it.

Sign in from the TUI's Account / Login screen. After a successful device-flow authentication, the TUI auto-starts an in-process relay listener and the sidebar indicator flips to ● connected.

The listener is tied to the TUI window — closing the TUI drops the connection after ~60 s. For always-on reachability (CI runners, headless boxes), use servonaut connect --bg instead; the CLI and TUI cooperate over ~/.servonaut/relay.lock so they can't run at the same time. The TUI shows external listener (PID N) when a --bg listener is holding the connection.

Tokens are stored at ~/.servonaut/auth.json with mode 0600, written atomically via tmp + os.replace(). If an older build left the file world-readable, the next run auto-fixes it.

Development

# Run directly (primary dev workflow)
PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m servonaut.main

# Run with debug logging
PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m servonaut.main --debug

# Install editable
pip install -e .

# Update pipx installation after changes
pipx install . --force

# Run tests
pip install -e ".[test]"
pytest

See Architecture for codebase structure and design patterns.

Troubleshooting

See Troubleshooting Guide for help with SSH connections, bastion hosts, key management, and AWS credentials.

Runtime Files

All runtime files are under ~/.servonaut/:

File	Purpose
config.json	Main configuration
cache.json	Cached instance list (AWS + merged OVH)
auth.json	OAuth tokens for servonaut.dev, mode 0600, atomic writes
keywords.json	Scan results store
command_history.json	Saved commands and command history
ip_ban_audit.json	IP ban audit trail
mcp_audit.jsonl	MCP server audit trail
relay.pid	Background servonaut connect --bg PID (when running)
relay.lock	Advisory flock shared between the TUI's in-process listener and --bg, carries {pid, mode, acquired_at}
logs/servonaut.log	Application log
logs/relay.log	Relay lifecycle events (one JSON line per event, secrets redacted)

Logging

Logs are always written to ~/.servonaut/logs/servonaut.log. Use --debug for verbose stderr output.

When SSH fails, the terminal window stays open showing the error and exit code.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.