🚀 Tabby-MCP

A Comprehensive MCP Server Plugin for Tabby Terminal

Connect AI assistants to your terminal with full control — 34 MCP tools including SFTP support

English | 中文

🚀 Tabby-MCP is a powerful plugin for Tabby Terminal, bridging the gap between AI agents and your terminal environment. It provides a standardized MCP interface for AI to execute commands, manage tabs, and handle file operations securely.

Give your AI hands to work with.

✨ Features

📦 Installation

Method 1: Tabby Plugin Manager (Easiest)

Search for tabby-mcp-server directly in Tabby's built-in Plugin Manager:

1. Open Tabby → Settings → Plugins
2. Search for tabby-mcp-server
3. Click Install
4. Restart Tabby

Method 2: Quick Install Script

No Node.js required! Downloads pre-built release from GitHub.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GentlemanHu/Tabby-MCP/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Or download and run:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GentlemanHu/Tabby-MCP/main/scripts/install.sh
bash install.sh

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GentlemanHu/Tabby-MCP/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex

Or download and run:

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GentlemanHu/Tabby-MCP/main/scripts/install.ps1 -OutFile install.ps1
.\install.ps1

Method 3: Build from Source

Requires Node.js 18+.

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/GentlemanHu/Tabby-MCP.git
cd Tabby-MCP

# Build & Install
bash scripts/build-and-install.sh

Or manually:

npm install --legacy-peer-deps
npm run build
# Then copy dist/ and package.json to Tabby plugins folder

🔄 After Installation

1. Restart Tabby
2. Go to Settings → MCP
3. Start the MCP server

🔌 Connecting AI Clients

SSE Mode (Cursor / Windsurf)

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Tabby MCP": {
      "type": "sse",
      "url": "http://localhost:3001/mcp"
    }
  }
}

STDIO Mode (Claude Desktop / VS Code)

For clients that don't support SSE, use the STDIO bridge:

Claude Desktop (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tabby-mcp-server": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/Tabby-MCP/scripts/stdio-bridge.js"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code / Other IDEs:

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "tabby-mcp-server": {
        "type": "stdio",
        "command": "node",
        "args": ["scripts/stdio-bridge.js"],
        "cwd": "/path/to/Tabby-MCP"
      }
    }
  }
}

Note: STDIO mode requires Node.js installed. The bridge script connects to the SSE server running in Tabby.

Endpoints

| Endpoint | URL | Protocol | |----------|-----|----------| | Streamable HTTP | http://localhost:3001/mcp | 2025-03-26 (recommended) | | Legacy SSE | http://localhost:3001/sse | 2024-11-05 | | Health | http://localhost:3001/health | - | | Info | http://localhost:3001/info | - |

🛠️ Available Tools

Terminal Control (7)

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | get_session_list | List all terminal sessions with stable UUIDs and metadata | | exec_command | Execute command with flexible session targeting | | send_input | Send interactive input (Ctrl+C, etc) | | get_terminal_buffer | Read terminal buffer (defaults to active session) | | abort_command | Abort running command | | get_command_status | Monitor active commands | | focus_pane | Focus a specific pane in split view |

New in v1.1: All terminal tools now support flexible session targeting:

• sessionId (stable UUID, recommended)
• tabIndex (legacy, may change)
• title (partial match)
• profileName (partial match)
• No parameters = use active session

Tab Management (11)

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | list_tabs | List all open tabs with stable IDs | | select_tab | Focus a specific tab (defaults to active) | | close_tab | Close a tab | | close_all_tabs | Close all tabs | | duplicate_tab | Duplicate a tab | | next_tab / previous_tab | Navigate tabs | | move_tab_left / move_tab_right | Reorder tabs | | reopen_last_tab | Reopen closed tab | | split_tab | Split current tab (horizontal/vertical) |

Profile Management (4)

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | list_profiles | List terminal profiles | | open_profile | Open tab with profile | | show_profile_selector | Show profile dialog | | quick_connect | SSH quick connect |

SFTP Operations (12) 🆕

Requires tabby-ssh plugin. If not installed, SFTP tools are disabled automatically.

Basic Operations:

| Tool | Description | Key Parameters | |------|-------------|----------------| | sftp_list_files | List remote directory | path | | sftp_read_file | Read remote file (text) | path | | sftp_write_file | Write text to remote file | path, content | | sftp_mkdir | Create remote directory | path | | sftp_delete | Delete remote file/directory | path | | sftp_rename | Rename/move remote file | sourcePath, destPath | | sftp_stat | Get file/directory info | path |

File Transfer (supports sync/async):

| Tool | Description | Key Parameters | |------|-------------|----------------| | sftp_upload | Upload local file → remote | localPath, remotePath, sync | | sftp_download | Download remote → local file | remotePath, localPath, sync | | sftp_get_transfer_status | Query transfer progress | transferId | | sftp_list_transfers | List all transfers | status (filter) | | sftp_cancel_transfer | Cancel active transfer | transferId |

Transfer Modes: sync=true (default) waits for completion. sync=false returns immediately with transferId.

Size Limits: Configurable in Settings → MCP → SFTP.

⚙️ Configuration

| Setting | Description | Default | |---------|-------------|---------| | Port | MCP server port | 3001 | | Start on Boot | Auto-start server | true | | Pair Programming | Confirm commands | true | | Session Tracking | Use stable UUIDs | true | | Background Execution | Run without focus | false | | SFTP Enabled | Enable SFTP tools | true |

🔄 Background Execution Mode

Enable this mode to allow MCP commands to run without switching focus to the terminal. This lets you continue working on other tabs while AI executes commands in the background.

Settings → MCP → Background Execution

⚠️ Risks:

• You won't see commands executing in real-time
• If you type in the target terminal while AI is running, input will conflict
• For split panes, commands go to the sessionId target, not the focused pane
• Dangerous commands could run without you noticing

✅ Recommended: Keep "Pair Programming Mode" enabled with confirmation dialogs for safety.

⚠️ Platform Support

| Platform | Status | Notes | |----------|--------|-------| | macOS | ✅ Tested | Fully functional | | Windows | ⚠️ Untested | Should work — please report issues | | Linux | ⚠️ Untested | Should work — please report issues |

Note: This plugin has been developed and tested on macOS. Windows and Linux support should work but is unverified. Community testing and feedback welcome!

🤖 About This Project

🎨 95%+ AI Generated

This project was created almost entirely by AI (Claude/Gemini) through pair programming.
The human's role was primarily to provide requirements and test the results.

Acknowledgments

This project builds upon the work of tabby-mcp-server by @thuanpham582002.

Improvements over the original:

| Feature | Original | This Project | |---------|----------|--------------| | MCP Tools | 4 | 34 | | Tab Management | ❌ | ✅ | | Profile/SSH | ❌ | ✅ | | SFTP Support | ❌ | ✅ | | Stable Session IDs | ❌ | ✅ | | Streamable HTTP | ❌ | ✅ | | Init Bug | Has issue | ✅ Fixed | | Install Script | Manual | ✅ One-liner |

📝 Changelog

v1.2.0 (2026-01-24)

🔧 Critical Bug Fixes:

• 🔴 SFTP Session ID Mismatch - Fixed critical bug where SFTP tools operated on wrong SSH server
  • Root cause: SFTP had separate session registry from Terminal, causing ID mismatch
  • Fix: SFTP now shares session registry with Terminal tools
  • SFTP no longer silently falls back to first SSH tab when sessionId doesn't match
• 🔴 Local Directory Auto-Creation - SFTP downloads now automatically create missing local directories
• 🔴 Error Reporting - Fixed misleading "Remote file not found" when local directory was missing

🎨 UI Improvements:

• 📋 Connection Monitor - Added "Connections" button to settings (always visible)
• 🛠️ Server Lifecycle - Improved server restart with forced socket cleanup
• 📊 Session Tracking - Added session metadata with activity history

🔧 Terminal Improvements:

• 🐚 Heredoc Support - Fixed complex shell commands (Python heredoc) execution
• 📝 Detailed Logging - Added [findSSHSession] debug logs for troubleshooting

v1.1.6 (2026-01-22)

Improvements:

• 🎨 Enhanced Settings UI - Redesigned header with compact social links (GitHub, npm)
• 🔗 Smart Links - All external links now open correctly in default browser
• 🔢 Auto-versioning - Plugin version is now automatically read from package.json
• 🧹 Cleaner UI - Optimized layout and removed redundant sections

v1.1.5 (2026-01-22)

New Features:

• 🌐 Internationalization (i18n) - Settings UI now supports multiple languages
  • English (en-US, en-GB)
  • Chinese Simplified (zh-CN, zh-TW)
  • Auto-follows Tabby's language setting
  • Extensible: easily add new languages by adding JSON files

v1.1.4 (2026-01-22)

New Features:

• 🔄 Background Execution Mode - Run MCP commands without switching terminal focus
  • Settings UI with comprehensive risk warnings
  • Split pane focus handling for proper pane targeting
• 🐚 Multi-shell Compatibility - exec_command now supports Fish, Bash, Zsh, and sh
  • Auto-detects shell type from terminal buffer patterns
  • Shell-specific command wrappers for exit code capture

Bug Fixes:

• 🔧 Fixed open_profile SSH readiness detection - no longer returns prematurely before SSH is connected
• Fixed shell detection for non-bash shells (Fish shell $status vs $?)

v1.1.3 (2026-01-22)

Bug Fixes:

• 🔧 Fixed open_profile sessionId inconsistency - now returns same sessionId as get_session_list
• Fixed SSH connection state detection - ready now correctly reflects overall connection status

Improvements:

• Clearer state fields in open_profile response:
  • tabReady: Tab/frontend initialized
  • sshConnected: SSH connection established (SSH profiles only)
  • ready: Overall ready state (for SSH: tabReady AND sshConnected)
• Marked all peerDependencies as optional to prevent unnecessary package downloads
• Added tabby-ssh to devDependencies for developer build stability

v1.1.2 (2026-01-22)

Optimization:

• 📦 Reduced npm package size by moving bundled dependencies to devDependencies
• All dependencies (express, zod, @modelcontextprotocol/sdk) are now bundled into dist/index.js
• Installing from npm/Tabby store no longer downloads unnecessary packages

v1.3.0 (2026-02-04)

Bug Fixes:

• 🔧 Fixed session disconnect false positives - exec_command and send_input no longer incorrectly report "Session disconnected"
  • Root cause: tab.destroyed is a Subject<void> (RxJS Observable), NOT a boolean
  • Now correctly uses session.open === false for disconnect detection

Cleanup:

• 🗑️ Removed non-functional SFTP "Advanced Tuning" settings (Chunk Size, Concurrency)
  • These had no effect with Tabby's russh-based SFTP implementation
• 🗑️ Removed obsolete fastPut/fastGet detection code

i18n:

• ✏️ Fixed SFTP size descriptions: corrected "10 MB" → "10 GB" in all translations

v1.1.1 (2026-01-21)

Bug Fixes:

• 🔧 Fixed Streamable HTTP connection leak - connections were not being cleaned up when clients disconnected
• Added transport.onclose handler to properly remove closed sessions from tracking
• Enhanced SSE stream close logging for better debugging

v1.1.0 (2026-01-20)

Major Fixes:

• SFTP tools completely rewritten - Fixed all SFTP tools that were returning "No SSH session found"
• Fixed SSH tab detection to properly handle tabs inside SplitTabComponent
• Fixed get_terminal_buffer and select_tab returning error when called without parameters
• Fixed select_tab tool not finding tabs by tabId (bidirectional lookup)
• Fixed quick_connect and open_profile parameter validation issues

Improvements:

• All tools now use smart defaults: no parameters = use active session/tab/first SSH session
• Updated documentation: tool count corrected to 34 (Terminal 7 + Tab 11 + Profile 4 + SFTP 12)
• Added detailed debug logging and better error messages
• Added focus_pane and split_tab to documentation
• Added Streamable HTTP transport support (protocol 2025-03-26)
• Settings: SFTP size limits now use MB instead of bytes
• Settings: Updated SFTP notes (removed outdated base64 warning)

🤝 Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE

Made with ❤️ by AI and GentlemanHu

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