rustterm-mcp

A high-performance MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for terminal command execution and file system operations, written in Rust.

Built with the official rmcp SDK.

Features

• Command Execution - Execute terminal commands with configurable timeouts
• Command History - Track recent command executions with timestamps and status
• Directory Navigation - Navigate and list directory contents
• File Operations - Read, write, and manipulate file contents with row-level precision
• Cross-Platform - Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux
• Security - Blocks dangerous commands like rm -rf /
• Fast - Native compiled binary with async I/O

Installation

From Source

git clone https://github.com/bangrocket/rustterm-mcp.git
cd rustterm-mcp
cargo build --release

The binary will be at target/release/rustterm-mcp.

Pre-built Binaries

Check the Releases page for pre-built binaries.

Usage

With Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rustterm": {
      "command": "/path/to/rustterm-mcp"
    }
  }
}

With Cursor

Add to your Cursor MCP configuration (.cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rustterm": {
      "command": "/path/to/rustterm-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

Tool	Description
execute_command	Execute a terminal command with optional timeout
get_command_history	Retrieve recent command execution history
get_current_directory	Get the current working directory
change_directory	Change the current working directory
list_directory	List files and directories
read_file	Read file contents with optional row selection and JSON parsing
write_file	Write content to a file (overwrite or append)
insert_file_content	Insert content at specific row(s)
delete_file_content	Delete row(s) or substrings within rows
update_file_content	Update/replace content at specific row(s)

Tool Reference

execute_command

Execute a terminal command with optional timeout.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
command	string	Yes	-	The command to execute
timeout	integer	No	30	Timeout in seconds

Example:

{"command": "ls -la", "timeout": 10}

get_command_history

Retrieve recent command execution history.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
count	integer	No	10	Number of entries (max 50)

get_current_directory

Get the current working directory. No parameters required.

change_directory

Change the current working directory.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
path	string	Yes	Path to change to (absolute or relative)

list_directory

List files and directories.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
path	string	No	Current dir	Path to list

read_file

Read file contents with optional filtering.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
path	string	Yes	-	Path to the file
start_row	integer	No	-	Starting row (0-based)
end_row	integer	No	-	Ending row (0-based, inclusive)
as_json	boolean	No	false	Parse and pretty-print as JSON

write_file

Write content to a file.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
path	string	Yes	-	Path to the file
content	string	Yes	-	Content to write
mode	string	No	"overwrite"	"overwrite" or "append"

insert_file_content

Insert content at specific row(s).

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
path	string	Yes	Path to the file
content	string	Yes	Content to insert
row	integer	No*	Single row number (0-based)
rows	array	No*	Multiple row numbers

*Must specify either row or rows

delete_file_content

Delete row(s) or substrings.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
path	string	Yes	Path to the file
row	integer	No*	Single row number (0-based)
rows	array	No*	Multiple row numbers
substring	string	No	Delete only this substring within rows

*Must specify either row or rows

update_file_content

Update/replace content at specific row(s).

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
path	string	Yes	Path to the file
content	string	Yes	New content
row	integer	No*	Single row number (0-based)
rows	array	No*	Multiple row numbers
substring	string	No	Replace only this substring within rows

*Must specify either row or rows

Configuration

Environment Variable	Description	Default
RUST_LOG	Log level (trace, debug, info, warn, error)	info

Security

The server blocks potentially dangerous commands including:

• rm -rf /
• rm -rf /*
• mkfs
• Fork bombs (:(){:|:&};:)

File operations are limited to 10 MB to prevent memory exhaustion.

Building from Source

Requirements

• Rust 1.70+ (install via rustup)

Debug Build

cargo build

Release Build (Optimized)

cargo build --release

The release build includes LTO and is stripped for minimal binary size.

License

MIT - see LICENSE

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.