Parallels MCP Server

MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for managing Parallels Desktop virtual machines on macOS.

Features

This MCP server provides comprehensive VM management capabilities:

VM Lifecycle Management

• list_vms - List all VMs with status, IP, and name
• get_vm_info - Get detailed VM information (CPU, memory, disk, network)
• start_vm - Start a VM
• stop_vm - Stop a VM (with optional force kill)
• restart_vm - Restart a VM
• pause_vm - Pause a running VM
• resume_vm - Resume a paused VM
• suspend_vm - Suspend a VM (save state to disk)

Snapshot Management

• create_snapshot - Create a VM snapshot
• list_snapshots - List all snapshots for a VM
• revert_snapshot - Revert to a specific snapshot
• delete_snapshot - Delete a snapshot

Guest Operations

• exec_in_vm - Execute commands inside the guest OS
• get_vm_ip - Get IP address of a running VM

VM Configuration

• clone_vm - Clone a VM (full or linked clone)
• set_vm_resources - Configure CPU and memory allocation

Installation

The server is already configured in your Claude Code instance at:

/Users/matthewkarsten/mcp-servers/parallels-mcp

Usage

After restarting Claude Code or starting a new session, you can use natural language to manage your VMs:

Examples

List all VMs:

Show me all my Parallels VMs

Start a VM:

Start the Kali Linux VM

Create a snapshot:

Create a snapshot of my Windows 11 VM called "before-update"

Execute a command in a VM:

Run "uname -a" in the Kali Linux VM

Clone a VM:

Clone my Windows 11 VM to "Windows 11 Test" as a linked clone

Get VM details:

Show me the details of my Kali Linux VM including IP address

Manual Testing

You can test the MCP server directly:

cd ~/mcp-servers/parallels-mcp
npm run dev

Then in another terminal, you can test it with the MCP inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node build/index.js

Verify Installation

Check that the server is configured:

claude mcp list

You should see parallels in the list of MCP servers.

Architecture

• Built with TypeScript
• Uses the official @modelcontextprotocol/sdk
• Wraps Parallels CLI tools (prlctl, prlsrvctl)
• Communicates over stdio transport

Next Steps

Windows Guest Operations MCP Server

To extend this with Windows-specific automation (for your Windows 11 ARM VMs):

1. Create a companion MCP server for Windows guest operations
2. Use exec_in_vm as the foundation
3. Add tools like:
   • run_powershell(vm_id, script) - Execute PowerShell scripts
   • install_chocolatey(vm_id) - Install Chocolatey package manager
   • install_app(vm_id, package) - Install apps via Chocolatey/Winget
   • setup_dev_env(vm_id, stack) - Configure development environments
   • copy_file_to_guest(vm_id, local, remote) - File transfer

Automation Examples

Once the Windows guest MCP is ready, you can orchestrate complex workflows:

Create a Windows 11 dev VM from my template, install VS Code, Git,
Node.js, and clone my project repo

This would:

1. Clone the template VM
2. Start it
3. Wait for guest tools
4. Install Chocolatey
5. Install the requested packages
6. Clone the repo
7. Create a snapshot

Requirements

• macOS with Parallels Desktop installed
• Parallels CLI tools available (prlctl)
• Node.js 18+
• Claude Code

Troubleshooting

Server shows "Failed to connect":

• Restart Claude Code to load the new MCP server
• Verify the build succeeded: cd ~/mcp-servers/parallels-mcp && npm run build
• Test manually: node build/index.js

Commands fail:

• Ensure Parallels Desktop is installed and licensed
• Verify VMs exist: prlctl list --all
• Check VM names/UUIDs match exactly

Permission errors:

• The server runs with your user permissions
• Ensure you can run prlctl commands manually

License

ISC