🔐 ssh-mcp-server

SSH-based MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that allows remote execution of SSH commands via the MCP protocol.

English Document | 中文文档

📝 Project Overview

ssh-mcp-server is a bridging tool that enables AI assistants and other applications supporting the MCP protocol to execute remote SSH commands through a standardized interface. This allows AI assistants to safely operate remote servers, execute commands, and retrieve results without directly exposing SSH credentials to AI models.

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✨ Key Features

• 🔒 Secure Connections: Supports multiple secure SSH connection methods, including password authentication and private key authentication (with passphrase support)
• 🛡️ Command Security Control: Precisely control the range of allowed commands through flexible blacklist and whitelist mechanisms to prevent dangerous operations
• 🔄 Standardized Interface: Complies with MCP protocol specifications for seamless integration with AI assistants supporting the protocol
• 🚇 Dual Transport Modes: Supports both exec and shell transport modes for direct SSH hosts and bastion or jump-host scenarios
• 📂 File Transfer: Supports bidirectional file transfers, uploading local files to servers or downloading files from servers
• 🔑 Credential Isolation: SSH credentials are managed entirely locally and never exposed to AI models, enhancing security
• 🚀 Ready to Use: Can be run directly using NPX without global installation, making it convenient and quick to deploy

📦 Open Source Repository

GitHub: https://github.com/classfang/ssh-mcp-server

NPM: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@fangjunjie/ssh-mcp-server

🛠️ Tools List

Tool	Name	Description
execute-command	Command Execution Tool	Execute SSH commands on remote servers and get results
upload	File Upload Tool	Upload local files to specified locations on remote servers
download	File Download Tool	Download files from remote servers to local specified locations
list-servers	List Servers Tool	List all available SSH server configurations

📚 Usage

0. 🤖 Quick Setup via AI Skill (Recommended)

If you are using an AI coding assistant that supports skills (such as Claude Code), you can use the built-in ssh-mcp-helper skill to complete the installation and configuration interactively — no need to manually edit JSON files.

How to use:

1. Install the skill from this repository's skills/ directory
2. Tell your AI assistant: "Help me set up ssh-mcp-server" or "Configure SSH MCP for my remote server"
3. The skill will guide you step by step: check Node.js environment → choose MCP client → select authentication method → collect connection parameters → generate and write configuration

The skill supports all scenarios covered below (password, private key, SSH config reuse, SOCKS proxy, bastion hosts, multi-connection, 2FA, command restrictions, etc.) and automatically produces correctly formatted configuration.

---

The sections below are arranged from the simplest entry point (username + password) to more advanced scenarios. Pick the case that matches yours and copy the mcp.json snippet directly into your MCP client configuration.

⚠️ Important: In MCP configuration files, each command line argument and its value must be separate elements in the args array. Do NOT combine them with spaces. For example, use "--host", "192.168.1.1" instead of "--host 192.168.1.1".

1. 🔑 Username + Password (simplest)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@fangjunjie/ssh-mcp-server",
        "--host", "192.168.1.1",
        "--port", "22",
        "--username", "root",
        "--password", "pwd123456"
      ]
    }
  }
}

2. 🔐 Username + Private Key

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@fangjunjie/ssh-mcp-server",
        "--host", "192.168.1.1",
        "--port", "22",
        "--username", "root",
        "--privateKey", "~/.ssh/id_rsa"
      ]
    }
  }
}

3. 🔏 Private Key with Passphrase

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@fangjunjie/ssh-mcp-server",
        "--host", "192.168.1.1",
        "--port", "22",
        "--username", "root",
        "--privateKey", "~/.ssh/id_rsa",
        "--passphrase", "pwd123456"
      ]
    }
  }
}

4. 📋 Reuse ~/.ssh/config

If you already have a host alias in ~/.ssh/config, the server reads connection parameters directly from it — no need to repeat them in mcp.json.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@fangjunjie/ssh-mcp-server",
        "--host", "myserver"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Assuming your ~/.ssh/config contains:

Host myserver
    HostName 192.168.1.1
    Port 22
    User root
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

You can also specify a custom SSH config file path:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@fangjunjie/ssh-mcp-server",
        "--host", "myserver",
        "--ssh-config-file", "/path/to/custom/ssh_config"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Note: Command-line parameters take precedence over SSH config values. For example, if you specify --port 2222, it will override the port from SSH config.

5. 🌐 Connecting Through a SOCKS Proxy

When the target host is only reachable through a SOCKS proxy:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@fangjunjie/ssh-mcp-server",
        "--host", "192.168.1.1",
        "--port", "22",
        "--username", "root",
        "--password", "pwd123456",
        "--socksProxy", "socks://username:password@proxy-host:proxy-port"
      ]
    }
  }
}

6. 📝 Restricting Commands With Whitelist / Blacklist

Use --whitelist and --blacklist to limit which commands the server is allowed to run. Patterns are comma-separated regular expressions. Strongly recommended for any production use.

Whitelist example (only allow read-only inspection commands):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@fangjunjie/ssh-mcp-server",
        "--host", "192.168.1.1",
        "--port", "22",
        "--username", "root",
        "--password", "pwd123456",
        "--whitelist", "^ls( .*)?,^cat .*,^df.*"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Blacklist example (block destructive commands):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@fangjunjie/ssh-mcp-server",
        "--host", "192.168.1.1",
        "--port", "22",
        "--username", "root",
        "--password", "pwd123456",
        "--blacklist", "^rm .*,^shutdown.*,^reboot.*"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Note: If both whitelist and blacklist are specified, the command must pass both checks (whitelist first, then blacklist) to be executed.

7. 🧩 Wrapping Commands With a Template

commandTemplate wraps every executed command in a template — useful for switching user via su, running inside a container, or jumping through another host. Use <quotedCommand> when the command is passed as a shell argument, or <command> for raw insertion. The template is applied after the working-directory cd is prepended, so the entire cd ... && <actual command> chain gets wrapped.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@fangjunjie/ssh-mcp-server",
        "--host", "10.0.0.1",
        "--port", "22",
        "--username", "deploy",
        "--password", "xxx",
        "--command-template", "su root -c <quotedCommand>"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Executing ls /app with directory /data actually sends:

su root -c 'cd -- '\''/data'\'' && ls /app'

Other useful templates:

sudo bash -c <quotedCommand>
docker exec -i mycontainer sh -c <quotedCommand>
ssh jumphost <quotedCommand>

8. 🚇 Bastion / Jump Host (transportMode: shell)

transportMode defaults to exec. Switch to shell when:

• SSH login succeeds but exec command execution fails
• The remote side requires shell startup scripts, banners, or environment initialization first
• The target effectively exposes only an interactive shell (bastion hosts, jump hosts, network devices)

Behavior differences:

• exec: supports execute-command, upload, and download
• shell: runs commands through a persistent shell session with an internal command queue, but does not support upload / download because SFTP is unavailable in this mode

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@fangjunjie/ssh-mcp-server",
        "--host", "bastion.example.com",
        "--port", "22",
        "--username", "ops",
        "--password", "pwd123456",
        "--transport-mode", "shell",
        "--shell-ready-timeout", "15000"
      ]
    }
  }
}

In JSON config files you can also set shellCommandTimeoutMs to override the default per-command timeout for shell-backed connections.

9. 🔐 Multi-Factor Authentication (2FA / MFA)

When the SSH server requires multi-factor authentication (password + private key + 2FA verification code), enable tryKeyboard. The password and private key are auto-supplied. For non-password prompts, set SSH_MCP_2FA_CODE in the server environment before connecting.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@fangjunjie/ssh-mcp-server",
        "--host", "example.com",
        "--port", "22",
        "--username", "user",
        "--password", "your_password",
        "--privateKey", "/path/to/key",
        "--try-keyboard"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Authentication flow: 1. Private key authentication (if provided) 2. Password authentication (if provided) 3. Keyboard-interactive for 2FA code via SSH_MCP_2FA_CODE

10. 🧩 Managing Multiple SSH Connections

When you need to expose more than one SSH target through the same MCP server, register them under unique connection names and select the target at call time via connectionName. There are three ways to configure them:

📄 Method 1: Using Config File (Recommended)

Create a JSON configuration file (e.g., ssh-config.json):

Array Format:

[
  {
    "name": "dev",
    "host": "1.2.3.4",
    "port": 22,
    "username": "alice",
    "password": "{abc=P100s0}",
    "socksProxy": "socks://127.0.0.1:10808"
  },
  {
    "name": "bastion",
    "host": "9.9.9.9",
    "port": 22,
    "username": "ops",
    "password": "pwd123456",
    "transportMode": "shell",
    "shellReadyTimeoutMs": 15000,
    "shellCommandTimeoutMs": 45000,
    "connectionTimeoutMs": 30000,
    "keepaliveIntervalMs": 10000,
    "keepaliveCountMax": 3
  },
  {
    "name": "prod",
    "host": "5.6.7.8",
    "port": 22,
    "username": "bob",
    "password": "yyy",
    "socksProxy": "socks://127.0.0.1:10808"
  },
  {
    "name": "secure-server",
    "host": "secure.example.com",
    "port": 22,
    "username": "admin",
    "password": "your_password",
    "privateKey": "/path/to/private/key",
    "tryKeyboard": true
  }
]

Object Format:

{
  "dev": {
    "host": "1.2.3.4",
    "port": 22,
    "username": "alice",
    "password": "{abc=P100s0}",
    "socksProxy": "socks://127.0.0.1:10808"
  },
  "bastion": {
    "host": "9.9.9.9",
    "port": 22,
    "username": "ops",
    "password": "pwd123456",
    "transportMode": "shell",
    "shellReadyTimeoutMs": 15000,
    "shellCommandTimeoutMs": 45000
  },
  "prod": {
    "host": "5.6.7.8",
    "port": 22,
    "username": "bob",
    "password": "yyy",
    "socksProxy": "socks://127.0.0.1:10808"
  }
}

Then use the --config-file parameter:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@fangjunjie/ssh-mcp-server",
        "--config-file", "ssh-config.json"
      ]
    }
  }
}

🔧 Method 2: Using JSON Format with --ssh Parameter

You can pass JSON-formatted configuration strings directly:

```json { "mcpServers": { "ssh-mcp-server": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "-y", "@fangjunjie/ssh-mcp-server", "--ssh", "{\"name\":\"dev\",\"host\":\"1.2.3.4\",\"port\":22,\"username\":\"alice\",\"password\":\"{abc=P100s0}\",\"socksProxy\":\"socks://127.0.0.1:10808\"}", "--ssh", "{\"name\":\"bastion\",\"host\":\"9.9.9.9\",\"port\":22,\"username\":\"ops\",\"password\":\"pwd123456\",\"transportMode\":\"shell\",\"shellReadyTimeoutMs\":15000}", "--ssh", "{\"name\":\"prod\",\"host\":\"5.6.7.8\",\"port\":22,\"username\":\"bob\",\"password\":\"yyy\",\"socksProxy\":\"socks://127.0.0.1:10808\"}"