terminal-mcp 0.4.6

MCP server for interactive terminal sessions (SSH, REPLs, database CLIs)

MCP server for interactive terminal sessions — SSH, REPLs, database CLIs, and TUI apps.

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Why This Exists

If you've hit any of these limitations with Claude Code, terminal-mcp solves them:

• "Claude Code can't handle interactive sessions" — The built-in Bash tool runs each command in a fresh subprocess. No persistence, no back-and-forth.
• "SSH not supported in Claude Code" — You can't SSH into a server and run multiple commands across an active connection.
• "Claude Code Bash tool doesn't support REPLs" — Python, Node, Ruby, and other interpreters need a persistent session for multi-line interaction.
• "How to use psql / mysql / redis-cli with Claude Code" — Database CLIs require a live connection that survives across tool calls.
• "Interactive terminal not working in Claude Code" — TUI apps (htop, vim, ncdu, fzf) need a real PTY with special key support.
• "Claude Code can't send arrow keys or Tab" — The Bash tool has no concept of terminal escape sequences.

terminal-mcp fills this gap by exposing MCP tools that create and manage real PTY sessions. Each session runs as a persistent child process; you send input, special keys, and control characters and read output across multiple tool calls for as long as the session lives.

Features

• Persistent PTY sessions — real terminal sessions that survive across tool calls
• Send + read in one call — session_interact combines send and read, halving LLM round trips
• Regex-triggered reads — session_wait_for blocks until a pattern matches in output — no more guessing timeouts
• Dangerous command gate — detects risky commands (rm -rf, DROP TABLE, curl|sh, etc.) and requires confirmation
• OSC 133 shell integration — auto-detects command boundaries and exit codes from modern shells
• Special key support — arrow keys, Tab, Escape, function keys (F1–F12), Home/End, Page Up/Down
• Control characters — Ctrl-C, Ctrl-D, Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-L, and telnet escape
• Four read modes — stream (waits for output to settle), snapshot (pyte screen buffer), auto (auto-detects TUI apps), and diff (returns only changed screen lines)
• Auto TUI detection — automatically detects alternate screen buffer (htop, vim, etc.) and switches to snapshot mode
• Output diff mode — returns only changed lines since last read, minimizing tokens for TUI monitoring
• Intelligent truncation — four truncation modes: tail (default), head_tail (preserves beginning and end), tail_only (for build logs), none
• ANSI stripping — optional removal of escape sequences for clean text output
• Idle cleanup — automatic session cleanup after configurable timeout
• Session management — list, label, and manage multiple concurrent sessions
• Dynamic resize — resize terminal dimensions on the fly with SIGWINCH support
• Secret input — send passwords without logging them
• Scrollback history — access terminal scrollback buffer beyond the visible screen
• One-shot execution — run a single command without manual session management
• Smart output truncation — four truncation strategies (tail, head_tail, tail_only, none) to prevent context overflow while preserving the most useful output
• Env var configuration — configure all settings via TERMINAL_MCP_* environment variables
• PyPI distribution — install directly with pip install terminal-mcp

Supported Clients

Client	Status	Install
Claude Code (CLI)	✅ Supported	~/.claude.json or .mcp.json
Claude Desktop	✅ Supported	One-click install
VS Code (Copilot Chat)	✅ Supported	One-click install or .vscode/mcp.json
Cursor	✅ Supported	One-click install or Settings → MCP
Windsurf	✅ Supported	~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

Quickstart

Install

Recommended — no install needed:

uvx terminal-mcp

Or install via pip:

pip install terminal-mcp

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/mkpvishnu/terminal-mcp.git
cd terminal-mcp
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Register with Claude Code

Add to ~/.claude.json (or project .mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "terminal": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["terminal-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Register with Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "terminal": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["terminal-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Register with VS Code / Cursor

Click the one-click install badge above, or add to .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "terminal-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["terminal-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Verify it works

session_exec  exec="echo hello from terminal-mcp"

Demo

SSH session to a remote server

session_create  command="ssh [e-mail]"  label="prod-ssh"
session_read    session_id="a1b2c3d4"  timeout=5.0
session_send    session_id="a1b2c3d4"  password="mypassword"
session_send    session_id="a1b2c3d4"  input="df -h"
session_read    session_id="a1b2c3d4"
session_close   session_id="a1b2c3d4"

Python REPL

session_create  command="python3"  label="repl"
session_read    session_id="e5f6g7h8"
session_send    session_id="e5f6g7h8"  input="import math"
session_send    session_id="e5f6g7h8"  input="print(math.sqrt(144))"
session_read    session_id="e5f6g7h8"
session_close   session_id="e5f6g7h8"

TUI navigation with special keys

session_create  command="python3 -m openclaw configure"  label="openclaw"
session_read    session_id="x1y2z3w4"  timeout=3.0
session_send    session_id="x1y2z3w4"  key="down"
session_send    session_id="x1y2z3w4"  key="down"
session_send    session_id="x1y2z3w4"  key="enter"
session_read    session_id="x1y2z3w4"
session_send    session_id="x1y2z3w4"  key="tab"
session_read    session_id="x1y2z3w4"
session_close   session_id="x1y2z3w4"

Auto TUI detection and diff mode

session_create   command="htop"  label="monitor"
session_read     session_id="a1b2c3d4"
→ auto-detects TUI, returns snapshot with mode_used="snapshot", tui_active=true

session_read     session_id="a1b2c3d4"  mode="diff"
→ returns only changed lines since last read

session_read     session_id="a1b2c3d4"  mode="diff"
→ returns only lines that changed, minimizing tokens

session_close    session_id="a1b2c3d4"

One-shot command execution

session_exec  exec="ls -la /tmp"
session_exec  exec="python3 -c 'print(42)'"  command="bash"  timeout=10.0

Send + read in one call (session_interact)

session_create   command="bash"  label="demo"
session_interact session_id="a1b2c3d4"  input="ls -la"  wait_for="\\$\\s*$"  timeout=5.0
session_interact session_id="a1b2c3d4"  input="whoami"  wait_for="\\$"
session_close    session_id="a1b2c3d4"

Wait for specific output pattern

session_create   command="bash"  label="build"
session_send     session_id="a1b2c3d4"  input="npm run build"
session_wait_for session_id="a1b2c3d4"  pattern="Build complete|ERROR"  timeout=60.0
session_close    session_id="a1b2c3d4"

Dangerous command confirmation

session_send    session_id="a1b2c3d4"  input="rm -rf /tmp/old"
→ returns: requires_confirmation=true, reason="Matched dangerous pattern: ..."

session_send    session_id="a1b2c3d4"  input="rm -rf /tmp/old"  confirmed=true
→ executes the command

Sending Ctrl-C to interrupt

session_send    session_id="a1b2c3d4"  control_char="c"
session_read    session_id="a1b2c3d4"

Tool Reference

session_create

Spawn a persistent PTY terminal session.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
command	string	Yes	—	Shell command to run (e.g. bash, python3, ssh user@host)
label	string	No	command name	Human-readable label
rows	integer	No	24	Terminal height
cols	integer	No	80	Terminal width
idle_timeout	integer	No	1800	Seconds before auto-close
enable_snapshot	boolean	No	true	Deprecated: snapshot is now always enabled
scrollback_lines	integer	No	1000	Scrollback history lines

Returns: session_id, label, pid, created_at, snapshot_available

session_send

Send input text, a control character, or a special key to an active session. Only one of input, control_char, key, or password may be provided per call.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
session_id	string	Yes	—	Session ID from session_create
input	string	No	—	Text to send
press_enter	boolean	No	true	Append carriage return after input
control_char	string	No	—	Control character: c d z l ]
key	string	No	—	Special key (see table below)
password	string	No	—	Password or secret (not logged)
confirmed	boolean	No	false	Bypass dangerous command gate

Returns: bytes_sent — or requires_confirmation, reason if the command matches a dangerous pattern

Supported special keys

Key	Description	Key	Description
up	Arrow up	f1–f12	Function keys
down	Arrow down	home	Home
left	Arrow left	end	End
right	Arrow right	page-up	Page Up
tab	Tab	page-down	Page Down
shift-tab	Shift+Tab	insert	Insert
escape	Escape	delete	Delete
enter	Enter	backspace	Backspace

Supported control characters

Char	Signal	Description
c	SIGINT	Interrupt (Ctrl-C)
d	EOF	End of file / logout (Ctrl-D)
z	SIGTSTP	Suspend (Ctrl-Z)
l	—	Clear screen (Ctrl-L)
]	—	Telnet escape

session_resize

Resize the terminal window of an active session.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
session_id	string	Yes	—	Session ID
rows	integer	Yes	—	New terminal height
cols	integer	Yes	—	New terminal width

Returns: rows, cols

session_read

Read output from a session.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
session_id	string	Yes	—	Session ID
mode	string	No	auto	auto, stream, snapshot, or diff
timeout	number	No	2.0	Settle timeout in seconds (stream/auto mode)
strip_ansi	boolean	No	true	Strip ANSI escape sequences
scrollback	integer	No	—	Lines of scrollback history (snapshot mode)
truncation	string	No	config default	Truncation mode: tail, head_tail, tail_only, none

Returns: output, bytes_read, prompt_detected, is_alive, truncated, tui_active, snapshot_available, mode_used, changed_lines (diff mode), is_first_read (diff mode), total_lines (scrollback), osc133, command_state, exit_code, command_complete (shell integration)

session_close

Terminate a session gracefully (EOF → SIGHUP → SIGKILL).

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
session_id	string	Yes	Session ID to close

Returns: exit_status — or already_closed: true if the session was already terminated (idempotent)

session_exec

Execute a command in a temporary session and return output. The session is automatically cleaned up.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
exec	string	Yes	—	Command to execute
command	string	No	bash	Shell to use
timeout	number	No	5.0	Seconds to wait for output
rows	integer	No	24	Terminal height
cols	integer	No	80	Terminal width
truncation	string	No	config default	Truncation mode: tail, head_tail, tail_only, none

Returns: output, bytes_read, session_id, truncated

session_interact

Send input and read output in a single call. Combines session_send + session_read to halve round trips. Optionally waits for a regex pattern in the output.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
session_id	string	Yes	—	Session ID
input	string	No	—	Text to send
press_enter	boolean	No	true	Append carriage return after input
control_char	string	No	—	Control character: c d z l ]
key	string	No	—	Special key (see session_send)
password	string	No	—	Password or secret (not logged)
wait_for	string	No	—	Regex pattern to wait for in output
timeout	number	No	5.0	Seconds to wait for output
strip_ansi	boolean	No	true	Strip ANSI escape sequences
confirmed	boolean	No	false	Bypass dangerous command gate
read_mode	string	No	stream	Read mode: auto, stream, snapshot, diff
truncation	string	No	config default	Truncation mode: tail, head_tail, tail_only, none

Returns: output, bytes_read, bytes_sent, matched (when wait_for used), prompt_detected, is_alive, truncated, tui_active, mode_used, snapshot_available

session_wait_for

Read output from a session until a regex pattern matches or timeout expires. Use this instead of session_read when you know what output to expect.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
session_id	string	Yes	—	Session ID
pattern	string	Yes	—	Regex pattern to wait for in output
timeout	number	No	30.0	Max seconds to wait
strip_ansi	boolean	No	true	Strip ANSI escape sequences
truncation	string	No	config default	Truncation mode: tail, head_tail, tail_only, none

Returns: output, bytes_read, matched, prompt_detected, is_alive, truncated

session_list

List all active sessions with their status and idle time.

Returns: sessions (array with tui_active, snapshot_available per session), count

Architecture

flowchart LR
    Client[AI Client] -->|MCP JSON-RPC| Server[terminal-mcp]
    Server --> SM[Session Manager]
    SM --> S1[PTY 1: bash]
    SM --> S2[PTY 2: python3]
    SM --> S3[PTY 3: ssh user@host]
    S1 & S2 & S3 -.->|PTY output| Reader[Reader Thread]
    Reader -.->|buffer| Server

stateDiagram-v2
    [*] --> Active : session_create
    state Active {
        Idle --> Sending : session_send
        Sending --> Idle
        Idle --> Reading : session_read
        Reading --> Idle
        Idle --> Resizing : session_resize
        Resizing --> Idle
    }
    Active --> [*] : session_close
    Active --> [*] : idle_timeout

Each session is backed by a real PTY allocated via pexpect.spawn. The design has four main parts:

Background reader thread. A daemon thread continuously reads from the PTY file descriptor in 4096-byte chunks and appends bytes to an in-memory buffer. The thread is lock-protected and dies automatically when the child process exits.

Output settling (stream mode). session_read in stream mode polls the buffer until no new bytes have arrived for timeout seconds (default 2s), then returns everything written since the last read call. A hard ceiling of timeout + 10s prevents infinite blocking.

Snapshot mode (always on). All PTY output is fed into a pyte virtual screen buffer. In auto mode (the default), session_read automatically detects TUI applications via alternate screen buffer sequences and returns a rendered snapshot. The diff mode returns only changed lines since the last read, minimizing tokens for TUI monitoring.

Idle cleanup. SessionManager runs a background cleanup loop (every 60s by default) that closes sessions idle longer than their idle_timeout. The default timeout is 30 minutes. Concurrent sessions are capped at 10 by default.

Configuration

All settings can be overridden via environment variables prefixed with TERMINAL_MCP_:

Setting	Env Var	Default	Description
max_sessions	TERMINAL_MCP_MAX_SESSIONS	10	Maximum concurrent sessions
idle_timeout	TERMINAL_MCP_IDLE_TIMEOUT	1800	Seconds before auto-close
default_rows	TERMINAL_MCP_DEFAULT_ROWS	24	Default terminal height
default_cols	TERMINAL_MCP_DEFAULT_COLS	80	Default terminal width
read_settle_timeout	TERMINAL_MCP_READ_SETTLE_TIMEOUT	2.0	Output settle timeout
max_output_bytes	TERMINAL_MCP_MAX_OUTPUT_BYTES	100000	Max bytes per read
cleanup_interval	TERMINAL_MCP_CLEANUP_INTERVAL	60	Seconds between cleanup
max_buffer_bytes	TERMINAL_MCP_MAX_BUFFER_BYTES	1000000	Per-session PTY buffer cap in bytes
safety_gate	TERMINAL_MCP_SAFETY_GATE	on	Dangerous command gate (off to disable)
dangerous_patterns	TERMINAL_MCP_DANGEROUS_PATTERNS	built-in	Extra patterns (semicolon-separated regexes)
truncation_mode	TERMINAL_MCP_TRUNCATION_MODE	tail	Default truncation strategy (tail, head_tail, tail_only, none)

Per-session parameters: rows, cols, idle_timeout, and scrollback_lines can be set per session via session_create. There is no global env var for scrollback_lines — it defaults to 1000 lines per session. Set scrollback_lines=0 to disable scrollback history.

How to Set Environment Variables

Since terminal-mcp runs as a subprocess of your MCP client, environment variables must be configured in the client's MCP server configuration — not in your shell profile (.bashrc, .zshrc, etc.).

Claude Code (~/.claude.json or project .mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "terminal": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["terminal-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "TERMINAL_MCP_MAX_SESSIONS": "20",
        "TERMINAL_MCP_IDLE_TIMEOUT": "3600",
        "TERMINAL_MCP_SAFETY_GATE": "off",
        "TERMINAL_MCP_TRUNCATION_MODE": "head_tail"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "terminal": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["terminal-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "TERMINAL_MCP_MAX_SESSIONS": "20",
        "TERMINAL_MCP_IDLE_TIMEOUT": "3600"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code / Cursor (.vscode/mcp.json):

{
  "servers": {
    "terminal-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["terminal-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "TERMINAL_MCP_MAX_SESSIONS": "20",
        "TERMINAL_MCP_IDLE_TIMEOUT": "3600"
      }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf (~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "terminal": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["terminal-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "TERMINAL_MCP_MAX_SESSIONS": "20"
      }
    }
  }
}

You can also set env vars directly in your shell when running the server manually for testing:

TERMINAL_MCP_MAX_SESSIONS=20 TERMINAL_MCP_SAFETY_GATE=off uvx terminal-mcp

Changelog

v0.4.6

• Bump actions/github-script from 7 to 8 (#14)

v0.4.5

• Remove stale publish.yml workflow (#13)

v0.4.4

• Fix release push: use RELEASE_TOKEN for branch protection bypass (#12)

v0.4.3

• Fix wait_for matching command echo — session_interact with wait_for no longer matches the echoed input text. Pattern matching now starts from a buffer position anchored before the send, so only genuinely new output is matched (fixes #6)
• Fix wait_for matching stale buffer content — session_interact with wait_for no longer matches pre-existing unread buffer content (startup banners, previous command output). Uses a monotonic absolute byte counter that survives buffer trims (fixes #7)
• Idempotent session_close — closing an already-closed or naturally-exited session now returns success: true, already_closed: true instead of a not_found error. Safe for finally-style cleanup (fixes #8)
• Comprehensive ANSI stripping — strip_ansi now handles Kitty keyboard protocol sequences, application keypad mode (ESC=/ESC>), DCS sequences, secondary DA responses, and tilde-terminated CSI sequences that leaked through during TUI exit transitions (fixes #9)

v0.4.2

• Fix is_alive race on Linux — is_alive property now uses exception-safe _is_alive() internally, preventing PtyProcessError when child processes exit before waitpid can reap them. Fixes flaky CI failures on Linux runners

v0.4.1

• Auto TUI detection — automatically detects alternate screen buffer sequences (ESC[?1049h, ESC[?47h, ESC[?1047h) and switches session_read to snapshot mode. New mode="auto" is now the default
• Output diff mode — session_read with mode="diff" returns only changed screen lines since last read, with 1-indexed line numbers and is_first_read flag
• Intelligent truncation — new truncate_output_smart() with four strategies: tail (keep beginning), head_tail (keep first 30% + last 70% with line-count marker), tail_only (keep end, ideal for build logs), none (disable truncation). Configurable via truncation parameter on all read tools or TERMINAL_MCP_TRUNCATION_MODE env var
• Always-on pyte — snapshot mode is now always initialized (no need for enable_snapshot=true). enable_snapshot parameter deprecated
• read_mode on session_interact — choose how output is read back: auto, stream, snapshot, or diff
• Thread-safe screen reads — read_snapshot() and read_diff() now acquire buffer lock before reading pyte screen
• Response fields: tui_active, snapshot_available, mode_used added to read responses; snapshot_available added to create and list responses

v0.4.0

• session_interact tool — send input and read output in a single MCP call, halving round trips. Supports all input types (text, keys, control chars, passwords) with optional wait_for regex pattern
• session_wait_for tool — block until a regex pattern matches in session output or timeout expires. Replaces fragile timeout-based reads when you know what to expect
• Dangerous command gate — detects risky commands (rm -rf, DROP TABLE, curl|sh, chmod 777, etc.) and returns requires_confirmation instead of executing. Resend with confirmed=true to proceed. 17 built-in patterns, extensible via TERMINAL_MCP_DANGEROUS_PATTERNS env var, disable with TERMINAL_MCP_SAFETY_GATE=off
• OSC 133 shell integration — auto-detects command boundary markers emitted by modern shells (bash 5.2+, zsh, fish). When detected, read responses include command_state, exit_code, and command_complete fields for precise command completion tracking

v0.3.3

• Buffer memory cap — per-session PTY buffer capped at 1MB (configurable via TERMINAL_MCP_MAX_BUFFER_BYTES), prevents unbounded memory growth on long-running sessions
• Async event loop — all blocking PTY calls wrapped in asyncio.to_thread(), unblocking the event loop for concurrent MCP requests
• Snapshot ANSI stripping — strip_ansi parameter now correctly applied in snapshot and scrollback read modes
• Exec output truncation — session_exec now applies max_output_bytes truncation to prevent context overflow
• SIGTERM cleanup — added signal handler to close all PTY sessions on SIGTERM (Docker stop, kill, systemd)
• Close race condition — close() now handles pexpect exceptions when child process is already reaped
• Removed unused import atexit from server.py

v0.3.1

• MCP registry publication — added mcp-name marker and server.json for official MCP registry
• Version bump for registry metadata

v0.3.0

• Output truncation — large outputs are now automatically truncated to max_output_bytes (100KB default)
• Environment variable config — all settings configurable via TERMINAL_MCP_* env vars
• session_resize tool — dynamically resize terminal dimensions (sends SIGWINCH)
• Secret input — password parameter on session_send for credentials (redacted from logs)
• Scrollback buffer — pyte.HistoryScreen with configurable history depth; scrollback param on session_read
• session_exec tool — one-shot command execution with automatic session cleanup
• PyPI publishing — pip install terminal-mcp via trusted publishing workflow

v0.2.0

• Special key support — arrow keys, Tab, Escape, function keys (F1–F12), Home/End, Page Up/Down, and more via the key parameter on session_send
• Mutual exclusivity — input, control_char, and key are now validated as mutually exclusive
• Added GitHub Actions CI (Python 3.10–3.13) and CodeQL security scanning
• Added project metadata, classifiers, and MIT license

v0.1.0

• Initial release
• Persistent PTY sessions via pexpect
• Stream and snapshot read modes
• Control character support (Ctrl-C, Ctrl-D, Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-L)
• Session management with idle cleanup

Running Tests

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest tests/ -v

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue first to discuss what you'd like to change.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Add tests for new functionality
4. Ensure all tests pass: pytest tests/ -v
5. Submit a pull request

License

MIT