Hop

You can manage and interact with your servers through a dedicated MCP server that runs locally and responds to AI assistants. This setup lets you discover connections, resolve targets, and execute commands across multiple hosts in a controlled, secure way, directly from your preferred assistant or client.

How to use

Install and run the MCP server along with your Hop client to enable AI-assisted server management. Start by configuring your client to use the MCP server, then use the available tools to list connections, resolve targets, and run commands on matched servers. You can also inspect connection details, groupings, and history, all through intuitive commands or prompts from your assistant.

How to install

Prerequisites depend on how you prefer to install the Hop client that hosts the MCP server.

# Install using Homebrew (macOS/Linux)
brew install danmartuszewski/tap/hop

# Install using Go
go install github.com/danmartuszewski/hop/cmd/hop@latest

# Build from source
git clone https://github.com/danmartuszewski/hop.git && cd hop && make build
./bin/hop

MCP server usage and configuration

The MCP server is started as a subcommand of the Hop client and can be configured to allow or restrict remote command execution. Use the following examples to set up the MCP server integration with your assistants.

# Start the MCP server in read-only mode
hop mcp

# Start the MCP server with remote execution enabled
hop mcp --allow-exec

# Print a ready-to-use client configuration for Claude Desktop or Codex
hop mcp --print-client-config --allow-exec

Configuration and examples for MCP clients

To integrate with Claude Code or Codex, use the explicit MCP configurations shown here.

Claude Code configuration

claude mcp add hop -- hop mcp

Codex CLI configuration

codex mcp add hop -- hop mcp

Claude Desktop configuration excerpt

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hop": {
      "command": "hop",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Codex TOML configuration excerpt

[mcp_servers.hop]
command = "hop"
args = ["mcp"]

Alternatively, generate a read-only client config or a version with remote execution enabled.

hop mcp --print-client-config                  # read-only
hop mcp --print-client-config --allow-exec     # with remote exec enabled

Security and permissions

Identity files (SSH keys) are never exposed through MCP. Remote command execution is disabled by default and requires explicit enablement. All logging goes to stderr to keep the JSON-RPC transport clean.

Tools and capabilities

The MCP server provides programmatic access to common operations such as listing connections, searching, resolving targets, and building SSH commands, enabling AI assistants to interact with your infrastructure.

Available tools

list_connections

List all configured connections and filter them by project, environment, or tags.

search_connections

Fuzzy search across all connections to quickly locate a host or group.

get_connection

Retrieve detailed information about a specific connection by ID.

resolve_target

Preview which connections a target pattern will match before executing any action.

list_groups

List all named groups and their member connections.

get_history

Show usage history for connections to help audit access patterns.

build_ssh_command

Construct the full SSH command string for a given connection or set of connections.