A Model Context Protocol server that provides access to the currently active tab of iTerm
Iterm MCP server is a locally run integration for AI assistants that speak the Model Context Protocol. A Model Context Protocol server that provides access to the currently active tab of iTerm.
On macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json On Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Once Iterm is connected, these are the calls the assistant has available:
write_to_terminal — Writes to the active iTerm terminal, often used to run a command. Returns the number of lines of output produced by the commandread_terminal_output — Reads the requested number of lines from the active iTerm terminalsend_control_character — Sends a control character to the active iTerm terminalFeatures — The Features tool exposed by this serverTools — The Tools tool exposed by this serverRequirements — The Requirements tool exposed by this serverDebugging — Since MCP servers communicate over stdio, debugging can be challenging. We recommend using the [MCPThe server ships on npm as @smithery/cli, so your MCP client can launch it on demand — there is no separate build step. Add the server block to your client's configuration, restart it, and the tools register themselves.
Plenty of developer tooling servers cover similar ground. The differences that matter in practice are scope of access and how much setup stands between you and a working tool call. Iterm's toolset — write_to_terminal, read_terminal_output, send_control_character and 4 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by deathmonger5000; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.
We check each listing at SyncDev against the project's documentation before it goes live — if something here drifts out of date, it is a bug worth reporting.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| write_to_terminal | Writes to the active iTerm terminal, often used to run a command. Returns the number of lines of output produced by the command. |
| read_terminal_output | Reads the requested number of lines from the active iTerm terminal. |
| send_control_character | Sends a control character to the active iTerm terminal. |
| Features | The Features tool exposed by this server. |
| Tools | The Tools tool exposed by this server. |
| Requirements | The Requirements tool exposed by this server. |
| Debugging | Since MCP servers communicate over stdio, debugging can be challenging. We recommend using the [MCP Inspector](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/inspector), which is available as a package script: |
{
"mcpServers": {
"iterm-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"iterm-mcp"
]
}
}
}Configuration as documented by the project. Restart the client after saving.
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