exocommand

Exocommand is a centralized MCP server that manages multiple projects, each with its own set of shell commands defined in a .exocommand YAML file. Instead of giving an AI agent unrestricted terminal access, you register projects with the server and control exactly which commands each agent can discover and execute.

Motivation

I wanted a way to give AI coding assistants controlled access to the terminal without handing over the keys entirely. Most agent frameworks provide unrestricted shell access, which is fine for sandboxed environments but risky in real projects. I needed a thin layer that lets me define exactly which commands the agent can run, and blocks everything else. As I started using it across multiple repositories, I also needed a single server process that could manage all of them — each project with its own config and its own access key.

Features

Multi-project registry — register multiple projects, each with a unique access key; the server manages them all from a single process
TUI dashboard — real-time terminal dashboard with project tabs, execution cards, status indicators, and animated spinners
YAML configuration — define commands per project in a .exocommand file with a name, description, and shell command
Live reload — the server watches each project’s config file for changes and notifies connected clients automatically
Streaming output — stdout and stderr are streamed line-by-line via SSE in real time; if the server crashes mid-execution, the client retains all lines already received
Task mode — opt-in execution mode backed by the MCP experimental tasks API for crash-resilient, independently-pollable command execution
Cancellation — long-running commands can be cancelled by the client; the spawned process is killed immediately
Multi-session — uses the Streamable HTTP transport, supporting multiple concurrent MCP sessions across projects

Getting started

Create a config file in your project directory:

bunx @fcannizzaro/exocommand init

bunx @fcannizzaro/exocommand add .

This validates the config and prints an access key:

  ✓ Project registered

    Key     a1b2c3d4e5f6
    Header  exocommand-project: a1b2c3d4e5f6
    Config  /path/to/project/.exocommand

Start the server:

bunx @fcannizzaro/exocommand

Use @fcannizzaro/exocommand@latest to always run the latest version from npm.

Create a .exocommand file in your project root:

build:
  description: "Run the production build"
  command: "cargo build --release"

clippy:
  description: "Run clippy linter"
  command: "cargo clippy"

list-external:
  description: "List files in parent directory"
  command: "ls -a"
  cwd: ../

Each top-level key is a command. Commands must have a description and a command field, and may include an optional cwd to set the working directory. Names may contain letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores.

Point your MCP client at http://127.0.0.1:5555/mcp with the exocommand-project header set to your access key. In OpenCode, for example:

{
  "mcp": {
    "exocommand": {
      "enabled": true,
      "type": "remote",
      "url": "http://host.docker.internal:5555/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "exocommand-project": "<access-key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Motivation

Features

Getting started

Links