TD/OMS MCP

Standalone TD/OMS change-management MCP for IBM Bob, Codex, Claude-compatible clients, and other agents that can launch a local stdio MCP server. It talks directly to TD/OMS REST APIs and does not require or control the Octo VS Code extension.

This is an independent community project. It is not affiliated with, maintained by, or endorsed by Remain Software, IBM, or their affiliates. TD/OMS, Octo, IBM, IBM i, and IBM Bob are trademarks of their respective owners.

Install

TD/OMS MCP is a command-line MCP server, not an application dependency. Install it globally so local agents can launch the tdoms-mcp command:

npm install --global tdoms-mcp
tdoms-mcp ui

To try it without installing it globally:

npx --yes tdoms-mcp@latest ui

Open http://127.0.0.1:3737, add a TD/OMS connection, and test it. Credentials and tokens stay in the local TD/OMS MCP data directory and are never returned to agents.

The Agent setup view detects supported MCP clients and can install or update this server after confirmation. Known configuration files are backed up before each change and restored automatically when a client command fails.

Keep TLS verification enabled. Publicly trusted certificates work without configuration. For an internal certificate authority, set the optional CA certificate file in the connection manager or set TDOMS_MCP_CA_FILE to an approved PEM file supplied by the organization.

After a global installation, start the compact agent-neutral profile:

tdoms-mcp mcp

Start the complete named-tool profile:

tdoms-mcp mcp --profile full

The equivalent environment setting is TDOMS_MCP_PROFILE=core or TDOMS_MCP_PROFILE=full. core is the default.

Agent Configuration

Use the same local stdio definition in Bob and JSON-based MCP clients after a global npm installation:

{
  "command": "tdoms-mcp",
  "args": ["mcp"],
  "env": {
    "TDOMS_MCP_PROFILE": "core"
  }
}

Codex TOML:

[mcp_servers.tdoms]
command = "tdoms-mcp"
args = ["mcp"]
env = { TDOMS_MCP_PROFILE = "core" }
startup_timeout_sec = 20
tool_timeout_sec = 60

Restart or reload the agent's MCP servers after changing the configuration.

Agent Skill

The package includes a portable developer skill at skills/tdoms-mcp-routing. Its SKILL.md teaches agents how to select core, full-profile, or Octo tools; discover site-specific values; perform guarded task, source, compile, checkout, promote, transfer, branch, and approval workflows; and verify final TD/OMS state.

The CLI and local UI can install the complete skill folder for detected IBM Bob, Codex, Claude Code, VS Code Copilot, Kiro, and Gemini CLI installations. The skill contains no credentials, connection profiles, organization-specific values, or personal information. Runtime tool schemas and values returned by the connected TD/OMS server remain authoritative.

List the native skill targets and their installation status:

tdoms-mcp skills

Install or update the skill for one agent. User scope makes it available across that agent's projects; workspace scope installs it only in the current project:

tdoms-mcp install-skill ibm-bob --scope user --confirm
tdoms-mcp install-skill codex --scope user --confirm
tdoms-mcp install-skill claude-code --scope workspace --confirm
tdoms-mcp install-skill vscode --scope workspace --confirm
tdoms-mcp install-skill kiro --scope user --confirm
tdoms-mcp install-skill gemini-cli --scope user --confirm

Install or update the skill for every detected compatible agent:

tdoms-mcp install-detected-skills --scope user --confirm

The Agent Setup page in tdoms-mcp ui provides the same actions with User skill and Workspace skill scope controls. Existing skill folders are timestamped and backed up before replacement, concurrent installs are locked, and a failed replacement restores the prior folder. Bob users must enable Advanced mode; existing agent sessions may need to be restarted or reloaded after installation. Claude Desktop chat requires a ZIP upload to Customize > Skills; its row provides a correctly packaged download instead of reporting a local folder copy as installed.

The Codex row covers the Codex desktop app, CLI, and VS Code extension through ~/.agents/skills. Restart Codex or reload the VS Code window and start a new task if a newly installed skill is not visible. The Visual Studio Code skill action installs for every compatible extension it detects: Codex through ~/.agents/skills, Claude Code through ~/.claude/skills, and GitHub Copilot through ~/.copilot/skills. Use /skills in agents that expose that menu, or invoke the skill by name in Codex and Claude Code.

Detect supported local clients from the installed command:

tdoms-mcp clients

Install or update one detected client:

tdoms-mcp install-client ibm-bob --confirm
tdoms-mcp install-client codex --confirm
tdoms-mcp install-client claude-code --confirm
tdoms-mcp install-client vscode --confirm

Configure every detected client that is not already configured:

tdoms-mcp install-detected --confirm

Documented adapters are included for IBM Bob, Codex, Claude Code sessions, Claude Desktop chat, VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Kiro, Gemini CLI, Zed, and OpenCode. Microsoft Store Claude installations use the app's virtualized configuration directory automatically.

IBM Bob uses its own global MCP store at ~/.bob/settings/mcp.json; it does not use VS Code's user-level mcp.json. The installer preserves servers from Bob's older ~/.bob/settings/mcp_settings.json file when creating the current configuration. Bob hot-reloads MCP changes when a workspace folder is open; manage the resulting servers from the MCP tab in the Bob panel settings menu.

Detection and installation are environment-local. Running the installer on Windows configures Windows agents; running it inside WSL configures only that WSL distribution; running it on macOS or Linux uses that platform's native paths. This prevents a Windows client from receiving an unusable WSL command, or the reverse. Claude has two targets: Claude Code sessions configures Code sessions opened from Claude Desktop or VS Code, while Claude Desktop chat configures regular Desktop chats.

Client installation never copies TD/OMS passwords or tokens into agent configuration. It registers only the local stdio command and the core tool profile. Existing files are backed up, writes are atomic, invalid JSON is rejected, and failed client updates are restored.

MCP and skill installation are separate on purpose: the MCP provides live TD/OMS tools, while the skill teaches an agent how to route requests and perform guarded change-management workflows. Install both for the complete experience.

Core Workflow

The default profile exposes seven tools:

• tdoms_list_connections
• tdoms_get_current_context
• tdoms_list_capabilities
• tdoms_discover_options
• tdoms_plan_workflow
• tdoms_execute_workflow
• tdoms_get_workflow_status

Call tdoms_get_current_context first. When one connection exists, it is selected automatically and the saved TD/OMS username becomes the default programmer ID. Octo sign-in context is not required.

Use tdoms_discover_options for both site-specific choices and structured reads. It supports workflow choices such as environments, programmers, paths, transfer targets, templates, reasons, conflicts, and user options. It also replaces extension views with task, request, component, source, queue, compile, history, log, spool, tracker, dependency, and dashboard reads. Task reads default to the current programmer; pass context.allUsers: true only when a broader search is intended.

For a mutation:

1. Discover the valid choices.
2. Call tdoms_plan_workflow with the chosen context, exact request body, and optionSelections keyed by option-set name. Those choices are validated now and before execution.
3. Review its endpoint/body preview and obtain user approval.
4. Call tdoms_execute_workflow with the returned planId and confirm: true.
5. Call tdoms_get_workflow_status when the operation is asynchronous.

Plans expire after ten minutes. Execution re-reads relevant TD/OMS state and rejects stale plans. A plan can execute only once.

Full Profile

The full profile exposes 226 tools: the seven universal tools plus the existing task, request, solution, source, object, connection-list, compile, transfer, checkout, promote, branch, spool, log, remote-job, comment, label, user-option, analysis, dashboard, tracker, and administration tools.

All tools that can change TD/OMS require explicit confirmation. tdoms_call_api remains available in full as an advanced escape hatch for documented endpoints.

CLI Reference

tdoms-mcp ui                              Open the local connection and agent setup UI
tdoms-mcp clients                         List detected MCP-capable agents
tdoms-mcp skills                          List native skill targets and status
tdoms-mcp install-client <id> --confirm   Configure one detected agent
tdoms-mcp install-detected --confirm      Configure all detected agents
tdoms-mcp install-skill <id> --scope user --confirm
                                          Install a skill for one detected agent
tdoms-mcp install-detected-skills --scope user --confirm
                                          Install skills for all compatible agents
tdoms-mcp mcp                             Start the core stdio MCP server
tdoms-mcp mcp --profile full              Start the complete tool profile
tdoms-mcp smoke                           Check local configuration without connecting
tdoms-mcp secure-storage                  Harden the local data directory
tdoms-mcp --help                          Show command help

Development

The following commands are only for contributors working from a cloned source repository. They are not required after installing the npm package.

npm install
npm test
npm run smoke
npm run ui

Tests use mocked TD/OMS clients and do not mutate a real environment. Live mutation tests must be enabled deliberately against a dedicated test system.

Local profiles are stored under %APPDATA%/tdoms-mcp on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/tdoms-mcp on macOS, and ~/.config/tdoms-mcp on Linux. Override this with TDOMS_MCP_DATA_DIR.

Credential Storage

Connection metadata is stored in connections.json. Passwords and refreshed JWTs are encrypted with AES-256-GCM in secrets.json. By default, a random key is stored in local.key. All three files use atomic replacement and cross-process locking, and POSIX systems enforce 0700 on the directory and 0600 on files.

For stronger key separation, set TDOMS_MCP_MASTER_KEY to 32 random bytes encoded as base64 or 64 hexadecimal characters before adding connections. Keep the same value available to every MCP process that uses that data directory. Changing or losing it makes existing encrypted secrets unreadable.

Generate a base64 key:

node -e "console.log(require('node:crypto').randomBytes(32).toString('base64'))"

On Windows, restrict an existing data directory to the current user, SYSTEM, and local Administrators:

tdoms-mcp secure-storage

Native WSL uses its own Linux data directory and requires Node.js 18 or newer. To reuse the Windows installation and Windows credentials from WSL, launch Windows node.exe; otherwise configure the connection separately inside WSL. Avoid sharing credential files through /mnt/c unless the Windows ACL has been hardened.

License

Released under the MIT License. See LICENSE.