simple-mcp-manager — MCP Server Manager

Monitor and restart MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers for Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and GitHub Copilot from one terminal. A lightweight TUI (terminal UI) that discovers your MCP configs, shows which servers are running or stopped, and lets you kill or restart them—no install into any AI tool required.

Works on Windows, macOS, Linux, and WSL.

Quick Start (no install)

Run with npx — no clone or global install needed:

npx simple-mcp-manager

Or install and run:

npm install -g simple-mcp-manager
mcp-manager

Or clone and run locally:

git clone https://github.com/tamb/simple-mcp-manager.git
cd simple-mcp-manager
npm install
npm start

What is this?

A standalone CLI you run in a separate terminal. It is not an MCP server and does not need to be installed into Cursor, VS Code, or any other tool. It:

• Scans MCP config files for all supported AI tools
• Lists every configured MCP server with run/stop status
• Lets you restart, kill, or restart all stopped servers from the TUI
• Works across Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and GitHub Copilot in one place

Supported tools & config locations

| Tool | Config locations | |------|------------------| | Cursor | ~/.cursor/mcp.json, %APPDATA%\Cursor\User\mcp.json, per-project in ~/.cursor/projects/*/mcp.json, workspace .cursor/mcp.json | | VS Code | ~/.vscode/mcp.json, %APPDATA%\Code\User\mcp.json (Win), ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/mcp.json (Mac), ~/.config/Code/User/mcp.json (Linux), workspace .vscode/mcp.json | | Windsurf | ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json, %APPDATA%\Windsurf\User\mcp_config.json (Win), ~/Library/Application Support/Windsurf/User/mcp_config.json (Mac), ~/.config/Windsurf/User/mcp_config.json (Linux), workspace .windsurf/mcp.json | | Claude Desktop | %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Win), ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (Mac), ~/.config/claude/claude_desktop_config.json (Linux) | | Claude Code | ~/.claude/mcp.json, ~/.claude.json, workspace .claude/mcp.json | | GitHub Copilot | ~/.mcp.json, workspace .mcp.json |

Most tools use { "mcpServers": { ... } }; GitHub Copilot and VS Code use { "servers": { ... } }. The manager auto-detects both.

Keybindings

| Key | Action | |-----|--------| | r | Restart the selected server | | k | Kill the selected server | | K | Kill all running servers | | a | Restart all stopped servers | | F5 | Manual refresh | | d | Show server details | | Up/Down | Navigate server list | | q | Quit |

Cross-platform support

| Feature | Windows | macOS | Linux | WSL | |---------|---------|-------|-------|-----| | Process detection | PowerShell | ps aux | ps aux | PowerShell (Windows processes) | | Kill process | taskkill /PID /F (per process) | kill SIGTERM/SIGKILL | kill SIGTERM/SIGKILL | taskkill.exe /PID /F | | Spawn process | shell: true for .cmd | detached | detached | cmd.exe /C (Windows side) |

On WSL, the manager detects Windows processes so it can see servers started by Cursor, VS Code, or Copilot on the Windows side; refresh runs every 15s there to avoid slow PowerShell queries.

How it works

1. Scans all known config file locations for each supported tool
2. Parses mcpServers (or servers) from each config
3. Matches running processes to each server’s command/package name
4. Shows everything in a live-updating table grouped by tool
5. Auto-refreshes every 5 seconds (15 seconds on WSL)
6. Detail view (d) shows full config path and environment variables (secrets masked)

Requirements

• Node.js >= 18

Links

• Repository: github.com/tamb/simple-mcp-manager
• npm: simple-mcp-manager
• Model Context Protocol (MCP): modelcontextprotocol.io