Conning MCP server

Conning

<!-- mcp-name: io.github.EranYonai/conning -->

A light, local SSH controller for humans and agents. Conning is one small CLI and MCP server on your own machine. It runs commands, long jobs and file copies on your test machines over plain OpenSSH. You drive it from a terminal; your agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor...) gets the same four commands as MCP tools, with identical output. Conning holds the keys, so the agent never sees a password, and you approve anything risky.

conn targets add lab --host 10.0.0.5 --user tester   # asks for the rest, pins the host key
conn run lab uname -a                                 # exit code first, then the output
conn run -t lab apt upgrade                           # you, at a terminal: live, like ssh -t
conn ssh lab                                          # you: a shell there, same login and jump hosts
conn targets mode lab auto                            # optional: let the agent run anything there

Status: early (0.6). Linux, macOS and Windows targets work, with long jobs, transfers, jump

hosts and approvals. See docs/design.md for every decision so far.

What it is

Four tools cost about 1k tokens a turn. Results lead with the exit code and are capped at 8 KB by default, with a handle to page the rest; fan-out to many targets collapses identical results.

• Light. One Python package and no daemon: the MCP server runs on stdio when your agent starts it.

installed on them. Secrets stay where they are (OS keychain, op://, ssh-agent): the target file holds references, and no tool ever returns a secret.

• Local. It runs next to you and your agent. Targets only need inbound SSH, and nothing gets

host keys, forwarding off, jump hosts. Windows targets need OpenSSH and PowerShell 7.

• SSH. Plain OpenSSH underneath, never your ~/.ssh/config: a generated config per target, pinned

your allow rules run, and anything else waits for you; "always allow" remembers two words, so systemctl status never lets through systemctl stop. Only you grant trust: in the agent client's prompt, in conn watch or at your terminal.

• For humans and agents. Each target has a mode, ask or auto. In ask, read-only commands and

Install

uv tool install conning        # or: pipx install conning
conn mcp install claude        # or codex, cursor, opencode, pi: adds the server, its skill, and denies raw ssh/scp

For Tab completion that reads the target (its files, commands and shell history), run conn completion install once; it adds one line to your bash, zsh or fish rc file, and conn doctor reminds you if it's missing. Set history = false on a target to keep its shell history out (D53).

The MCP server needs no install at all:

claude mcp add conning -- uvx conning mcp

Or run the server in Docker

docker run -i --rm --network host \
  -v ~/.config/conning:/conning \
  -v "$SSH_AUTH_SOCK":/ssh-agent -e SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/ssh-agent \
  ghcr.io/eranyonai/conning:latest

The image carries Python, the OpenSSH client and Conning, and nothing else. Targets, pinned host keys and job output live on the /conning volume, and conn runs as that folder's owner, so files it writes there stay yours on the host. On Docker Desktop for Mac, forward the agent with -v /run/host-services/ssh-auth.sock:/ssh-agent instead. Two things stay on your machine (D46):

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.