agentic_ssh

agentic_ssh is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server written in Rust that simplifies SSH access for AI agents. It parses your local SSH configuration files to discover hosts, automatically manages a pool of authenticated SSH connections (closing them after 5 minutes of inactivity), and allows agents to execute remote commands without needing to handle login credentials or session teardown.

It also supports output abbreviation, which helps save tokens by truncating extremely long stdout results.

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Features

• Automatic Host Discovery: Parses ~/.ssh/config recursively (including Include directives, wildcards, and path expansion) to extract explicit hosts.
• Connection Pooling: Maintains open SSH sessions and reuses them. Automatically reconnects if a connection drops.
• Auto-Cleanup: Closes pooled connections after 5 minutes of inactivity to conserve resource usage.
• Key-Based Authentication: Seamlessly authenticates using the IdentityFile paths configured in your SSH config, falling back to standard default keys (~/.ssh/id_rsa, ~/.ssh/id_ed25519, etc.).
• Token Saving / Output Abbreviation: Offers an option to truncate large stdout outputs (e.g., keeping only the first and last $N$ lines, with a truncation notice in the middle).
• High Performance: Built with async Rust (tokio & russh) and utilizes the mimalloc allocator.

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Quick Start

# Install (recommended: pre-compiled binary via cargo-binstall)
cargo binstall agentic_ssh

# Or compile from source via cargo
cargo install agentic_ssh

# Auto-configure for your agent(s)
agentic_ssh install

# Verify it works
# (in your agent: list_hosts)

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Installation

Ensure you have Rust and Cargo installed (or use the Nix environment).

Install via Cargo Binstall (Recommended)

You can install the pre-compiled binary for agentic_ssh using cargo-binstall:

cargo binstall agentic_ssh

Install via Cargo (Compile from Source)

You can also compile and install agentic_ssh directly from crates.io:

cargo install agentic_ssh

Install via Git

You can also install agentic_ssh directly from the GitHub repository:

cargo install --git https://github.com/sandbanks/agentic_ssh

Install from Source

Alternatively, you can clone the repository and install it locally:

git clone https://github.com/sandbanks/agentic_ssh.git
cd agentic_ssh
cargo install --path .

This builds the binary and places it in your Cargo binary directory (typically ~/.cargo/bin/).

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MCP Configuration

Automated Installation (Recommended)

agentic_ssh provides built-in commands to automatically detect and register itself with supported AI agents (e.g. Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Zed, Cline, Roo Code, Gemini CLI, Grok, etc.).

# Auto-detect all supported agents on your system and register agentic_ssh
agentic_ssh install

# Register specifically for a particular agent:
agentic_ssh install --agent claude
agentic_ssh install --agent cursor
agentic_ssh install --agent zed

# Or install project-scoped (local) configs:
agentic_ssh install --agent zed --local

Use agentic_ssh uninstall to remove the registration:

agentic_ssh uninstall
# Or for a specific agent:
agentic_ssh uninstall --agent claude

Supported agents for the --agent flag:

• claude (Claude Code / Claude Desktop)
• cursor
• zed
• cline
• roo-code
• gemini
• copilot (GitHub Copilot CLI)
• grok
• kimi
• kilo
• kiro
• vibe
• opencode
• codex
• pi
• antigravity

Manual Configuration

To manually register agentic_ssh with an MCP client (such as Claude Desktop), add it to your configuration file:

Claude Desktop Configuration

On macOS, edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. Note that Claude Desktop may require the absolute path to your home directory instead of ~:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "agentic_ssh": {
      "command": "/Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/.cargo/bin/agentic_ssh",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

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Configuration

agentic_ssh can be configured globally using a TOML config file located at ~/.config/agentic_ssh/config.toml (this directory and file are optional).

Configuration Options

• pool_status_path (string): The path to write/read the connection pool status JSON file. Supports absolute paths or tilde expansion (~/). Defaults to ~/.agentic_ssh_pool_status.json.
• custom_tools (array of tables): Defines custom subcommands that dynamically register as first-class MCP tools.
• ignore_hosts (array of strings): A list of wildcard/glob patterns matching host aliases or resolved hostname destinations that agents should be strictly prevented from listing or connecting to (denylist).
• allow_hosts (array of strings): A list of wildcard/glob patterns (allowlist). If specified and not empty, the agent is strictly restricted only to hosts matching these patterns, blocking all others by default. (Also supports the alias include_hosts).

Example ~/.config/agentic_ssh/config.toml:

# Configuration for agentic_ssh

# Custom path to write the connection pool status JSON file
pool_status_path = "~/.agentic_ssh_pool_status.json"

# Option A: Block specific hosts, allowing others by default
ignore_hosts = ["*.prod.company.com", "db-prod", "secure-*"]

# Option B: Block all hosts by default, only allowing specific ones
# ignore_hosts = ["*"]
# allow_hosts = ["*.staging.company.com", "dev-sandbox"]

# Register custom command abbreviations as first-class MCP tools
[[custom_tools]]
name = "list_upgradable"
description = "List all upgradable packages via apt. USE THIS instead of running apt manually."
command = "apt list --upgradable"

[[custom_tools]]
name = "grep_syslog"
description = "Search syslog for a pattern. USE THIS instead of ssh + grep."
command = "grep -i '{args}' /var/log/syslog"

[[custom_tools]]
name = "check_service_status"
description = "Check if a system service is running and its status"
command = "systemctl status {args} 2>/dev/null || service {args} status 2>/dev/null || echo 'Service command not found'"
#Use case: Use instead of: ssh host "systemctl status nginx"

[[custom_tools]]
name = "find_large_files"
description = "Find files larger than N MB for disk cleanup. USE THIS instead of ssh + find. Pass size in MB (e.g., find_large_files 100)."
command = "find / -type f -size +{args}M -exec ls -lh {} + 2>/dev/null | sort -k5 -h | tail -20"
#Use case: Agent needs to identify space hogs when a disk is full. Call with find_large_files 100 or find_large_files 500.

[[custom_tools]]
name = "list_network_connections"
description = "List all active network connections with process info"
command = "ss -tulnp 2>/dev/null || netstat -tulnp 2>/dev/null"
#Use case: Agent needs to debug network issues, check what's listening on a port, or identify suspicious connections.

[[custom_tools]]
name = "check_docker_status"
description = "Check Docker container statuses"
command = "docker ps -a --format '{{.Names}}|{{.Status}}|{{.Ports}}' 2>/dev/null"
#Use case: Agent needs to check the status of Docker containers.

[[custom_tools]]
name = "list_cron_jobs"
description = "List all cron jobs for current user and root"
command = "crontab -l 2>/dev/null; echo '=== ROOT ==='; sudo crontab -l 2>/dev/null"
#Use case: Agent needs to list cron jobs for current user and root.

[[custom_tools]]
name = "get_disk_usage"
description = "Get detailed disk usage for all mount points. USE THIS for full disk info."
command = "df -kP"
#Use case: Agent needs detailed disk usage across all filesystems.

Custom Tools / Command Abbreviations

When you define a table in custom_tools, the MCP server dynamically registers it as a first-class tool when the client calls tools/list. Each custom tool automatically supports:

1. host (string, optional): The target SSH host alias. Provide either host or hosts, but not both.
2. hosts (array of strings, optional): Optional list of SSH host aliases from ~/.ssh/config to query concurrently.
3. args (string, optional): Optional arguments. If the command template contains {args}, the placeholder is replaced by the value of args. Otherwise, if args is provided, it is appended to the command (separated by a space).

If hosts is used, the custom tool executes concurrently on all specified hosts and returns a JSON map mapping each host to its result status and output data.

This allows developers to extend the MCP server without writing Rust code, simplifying agent usage and saving prompt tokens.

Environment Overrides

For development or automated setups, you can override settings using environment variables, which take precedence over the configuration file:

• AGENTIC_SSH_POOL_STATUS: Path to the pool status file (e.g. /tmp/pool_status.json).

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Available Tools

The MCP server exposes native tools supporting both single-host execution (using the host parameter) and concurrent multi-host execution (using the hosts parameter).

[!NOTE] When executing on multiple hosts concurrently via the hosts argument, the response is a tagged JSON object mapping each host to its result payload:

{
  "host1": {
    "status": "success",
    "data": <normal_data_payload_or_stdout>
  },
  "host2": {
    "status": "error",
    "error": "Failed to connect: ..."
  }
}

Single-host execution using the host argument retains the original return format (plain text or structured JSON) for backward compatibility.

1. list_hosts

Lists all explicit SSH host aliases configured in your ~/.ssh/config file.

• Arguments: None
• Returns: A JSON array of host strings (e.g., ["server-a", "web-server", "db-prod"]).

2. run_command

Executes a shell command on one or multiple configured hosts.

• Arguments:
  • host (string, optional): The SSH host alias to run the command on.
  • hosts (array of strings, optional): Optional list of SSH host aliases to run the command on concurrently.
  • command (string, required): The command to execute.
  • abbreviate (boolean, optional): If true, truncates extremely long stdout outputs. Defaults to false.
  • max_lines (integer, optional): Maximum number of lines to retain when abbreviate is true. Defaults to 100.
• Returns:
  • Single host: A JSON object containing stdout, stderr, and exit_code.
  • Multi-host: A JSON object mapping hostnames to their respective results.

3. search_processes

Searches running processes on a single host or multiple hosts matching a pattern or regex, returning a structured JSON result list.

• Arguments:
  • host (string, optional): The SSH host alias to query.
  • hosts (array of strings, optional): Optional list of SSH host aliases to query concurrently.
  • pattern (string, required): A regex or substring pattern to filter process command lines (case-insensitive).
  • full_info (boolean, optional): If true, returns detailed statistics (pid, user, cpu, mem, command). If false, returns a concise list of pid and command. Defaults to false.
• Returns:
  • Single host: A JSON array of matching process objects.
  • Multi-host: A JSON object mapping hostnames to their respective arrays of process objects.

4. tail_log

Fetch the last N lines of a remote log file.

• Arguments:
  • host (string, optional): The SSH host alias to query.
  • hosts (array of strings, optional): Optional list of SSH host aliases to query concurrently.
  • file_path (string, required): The absolute path of the remote log file.
  • lines (integer, optional): Number of lines to retrieve (default: 50).
• Returns:
  • Single host: The tail output text.
  • Multi-host: A JSON object mapping hostnames to their respective statuses and log outputs.

5. tail_container_logs

Fetch the last N lines of logs from a remote Docker container.

• Arguments:
  • host (string, optional): The SSH host alias to query.
  • hosts (array of strings, optional): Optional list of SSH host aliases to query concurrently.
  • container (string, required): The Docker container name or ID.
  • lines (integer, optional): Number of lines to retrieve (default: 50).
  • timestamps (boolean, optional): Include timestamps in log output (default: false).
• Returns:
  • Single host: The container logs output text.
  • Multi-host: A JSON object mapping hostnames to their respective statuses and container logs.

6. wait_for_log_pattern

Streams a remote log file or Docker container logs and blocks until a regex pattern is matched or a timeout occurs.

• Arguments:
  • host (string, optional): The SSH host alias to query.
  • hosts (array of strings, optional): Optional list of SSH host aliases to query concurrently.
  • file_path (string, optional): Absolute path of log file (specify either file_path or container).
  • container (string, optional): Docker container name/ID (specify either file_path or container).
  • pattern (string, required): The regex pattern to wait for (case-insensitive).
  • timeout_secs (integer, optional): Maximum seconds to wait before timeout (default: 30).
• Returns:
  • Single host: A confirmation string showing the matching line, or a timeout message.
  • Multi-host: A JSON object mapping hostnames to their respective matched line or error/timeout messages.

7. get_system_stats

Fetch remote system statistics (load average, memory usage, disk space) as structured JSON.

• Arguments:
  • host (string, optional): The SSH host alias to query.
  • hosts (array of strings, optional): Optional list of SSH host aliases to query concurrently.
• Returns:
  • Single host: A JSON object containing load_averages, memory stats, and a list of disks filesystems and their usage.
  • Multi-host: A JSON object mapping hostnames to system stats objects.

8. list_ports

List active listening TCP and UDP ports on a remote host, with optional filtering by port number.

• Arguments:
  • host (string, optional): The SSH host alias to query.
  • hosts (array of strings, optional): Optional list of SSH host aliases to query concurrently.
  • port (integer, optional): Optional port number to filter by.
• Returns:
  • Single host: A JSON array of active port listener objects.
  • Multi-host: A JSON object mapping hostnames to listener arrays.

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Running Tests

To run the unit tests:

cargo test

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TUI Dashboard

You can run a live-updating TUI dashboard in your terminal to see the active SSH connections in the pool, how long ago they were last used, and how much time remains before they are automatically closed due to inactivity:

cargo run --release -- tui
# or:
./target/release/agentic_ssh tui

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Acknowledgments

Standing on the shoulders of giants...

• Enzo - MCP server installation code from tokensave
• [Future credits here...]

License

MIT / Apache 2.0