@hostafrica/connect

Register the HostAfrica remote MCP server with every AI tool on your machine, in one command.

Nothing runs locally. The MCP server is HostAfrica's hosted endpoint (https://mcp.hostafrica.com/mcp), so connecting a tool means writing one entry into that tool's config file. This CLI detects which tools you have and writes that entry for each.

npx @hostafrica/connect install

Once connected, you can ask your assistant to list my VPS servers, reboot web-01, add an A record for app.mydomain.co.za, snapshot db-01 before I deploy, or is mydomain.africa available? Around 72 tools are live: VPS lifecycle, backups and snapshots, firewall, rDNS, power tasks, monitoring, DNS and DNSSEC, domains, and catalogue/orders/payments.

Install

Run it directly, or install it globally for a shorter command:

npm install -g @hostafrica/connect

Requires Node 18 or newer.

Commands

hostafrica-connect status                 Show detected clients and registration state
hostafrica-connect install [client...]    Register with the given clients (default: all detected)
hostafrica-connect uninstall [client...]  Remove the registration (default: all registered)

With no client ids, install targets every client it detects and uninstall targets every client currently registered. Pass ids to be specific:

hostafrica-connect install claude-code cursor

status prints one line per client: whether it's detected, whether HostAfrica is registered, which auth mode it will use, and where the registration lives:

claude-code  registered      auth=oauth   claude mcp (user scope)
cursor       detected        auth=oauth   /Users/you/.cursor/mcp.json
codex        not detected    auth=oauth   /Users/you/.codex/config.toml

Options

| Option | Purpose | |---|---| | --token <token> | API token for clients that can't run OAuth. Also read from HOSTAFRICA_API_TOKEN. |

OAuth-capable clients never need a token; they open the browser themselves on first use.

Supported clients

claude-code, cursor, windsurf, gemini-cli, codex, antigravity, devin-cli, junie, claude-desktop

Each writes to that tool's own config location and format: claude mcp add for Claude Code, TOML for Codex CLI, serverUrl for Windsurf and Antigravity, httpUrl for Gemini CLI, and so on. Claude Desktop's config file only accepts stdio servers, so it's bridged through npx mcp-remote and needs Node available at runtime.

VS Code isn't in this list: the companion extension registers the server natively through VS Code's McpServerDefinitionProvider API instead of writing a config file. That extension can also drive this same registrar for every other detected tool, if you'd rather click than type.

Authentication

Registrations carry no credentials. They point at the OAuth endpoint, and your tool runs the browser sign-in itself. The endpoint supports Dynamic Client Registration, PKCE and refresh tokens. The grant is scoped to your account and revocable at any time in the Client Area.

For the rare client that can't run OAuth, generate an API token in the Client Area and pass --token. Config files containing a token are written chmod 600. Registration is read-modify-write, so entries for other MCP servers in the same file are preserved.

Links

• Source and issues
• @hostafrica/connector-core: the registrar library this wraps
• Developer docs
• HostAfrica Client Area

MIT licensed.