Shell command execution MCP server
Shell command execution MCP server. That is what the shell mcp mcp server brings to an AI assistant: the same capability, reachable through the Model Context Protocol rather than a separate app or dashboard.
An MCP server implementation that provides secure shell command execution capabilities for LLMs.
The server publishes 14 tools. What each one is for:
cat — Concatenate and display file contentspwd — Show current working directoryecho — Display textfree — Show memory usageuptime — Show system uptimedate — Show system date and timegrep — Search text patterns in fileswhois — Query WHOIS domain registration informationfind — Search for files in a directory hierarchynetstat — Network connection informationlspci — List PCI deviceslsusb — List USB devicesInstallation goes through your MCP client rather than a global install: point it at @kevinwatt/shell-mcp on npm and it is fetched when the client starts. The copy-paste blocks for Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor are further down this page.
Plenty of file and storage access 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. Shell MCP's toolset — cat, pwd, echo and 11 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by kevinwatt; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.
SyncDev reviews every entry in this directory against the project's own documentation before publishing, and revisits them as servers change.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| cat | Concatenate and display file contents |
| pwd | Show current working directory |
| echo | Display text |
| free | Show memory usage |
| uptime | Show system uptime |
| date | Show system date and time |
| grep | Search text patterns in files |
| whois | Query WHOIS domain registration information |
| find | Search for files in a directory hierarchy |
| netstat | Network connection information |
| lspci | List PCI devices |
| lsusb | List USB devices |
| dig | DNS lookup utility |
| nslookup | Query DNS records |
{
"mcpServers": {
"shell": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@kevinwatt/shell-mcp"]
}
}
}Add to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop.
Scoped local file access — read, write, search and reorganise files in directories you explicitly allow.
Search and read your Drive — Docs, Sheets and files become context your assistant can actually use.
Query, modify and analyse local SQLite databases in conversation — the fastest way to chat with a data file.
Chat with your second brain — search, read and write vault notes through the Local REST API.
Model Context Protocol (MCP) tool to interact with Claude Desktop on macOS
Upload, search, transform and organise your Cloudinary media library from a chat window