What can you do with Tui MCP?
- remote ops: agent SSHs into a production box, tails logs, greps for errors, restarts a service, watches it come back up. it's reading the same terminal output a human SRE would see. no custom APIs needed.
- legacy system interaction: ncurses admin panels, mysql cli, redis-cli, psql - the agent can drive all of these. stuff that will never get a REST API.
- multi-session orchestration: agent launches 3-4 sessions simultaneously. one running a dev server, one running tests, one tailing logs, one in a debugger. it's basically pair programming with an extra set of hands.
- interactive debuggers: gdb, lldb, pdb, node --inspect. the agent can set breakpoints, step through code, inspect variables.
- infrastructure as conversation: kubectl, terraform, docker, aws cli. agent doesn't need the kubernetes MCP server or the AWS MCP server. it just uses the CLIs directly, same as a human would.
Install
The installation steps are in the documentation below. Documentation
Documentation
From the project's README on GitHub, refreshed weekly. Links open on GitHub.
Contents
tui-mcp
What Chrome DevTools MCP is for the browser, tui-mcp is for the terminal.
Launch any terminal app in a managed pty, take screenshots, read text, send keystrokes. The app thinks it's running in a real terminal. Works with any TUI framework or no framework at all - vim, htop, bubbletea, textual, ink, inquirer, trend, ncurses, whatever.
How is this different from a bash tool?
A bash tool runs discrete commands - each invocation is fire-and-forget. The process exits, the output comes back. tui-mcp maintains a persistent, interactive session. The pty stays alive between calls. This matters when:
- The tool has state - you're in a
mysqlshell, you'veUSEd a database, you're in a transaction. A bash tool can't hold that session open between calls. - The tool has UI - htop, vim, k9s, lazygit. A bash tool gets garbage back because these apps paint full-screen interfaces with ANSI escape codes. tui-mcp renders them into a readable screenshot or text snapshot through xterm emulation.
- The interaction is multi-step - SSH prompts for a password, then a 2FA code, then you're in. An interactive installer asks questions.
git rebase -idrops you into an editor. These are conversational flows that a stateless bash tool can't handle. - You need to watch something - tail a log, monitor a build, wait for a deploy to finish. The session stays open, the agent can snapshot whenever it wants to check progress.
- The tool requires a TTY - some CLIs behave differently (or refuse to run) without a real terminal. node-pty gives them a real pty with
xterm-256color, so everything works as expected.
A bash tool is exec(). tui-mcp is "sit down at a terminal and use it like a human." One runs commands, the other operates software.
Some example outputs of the screenshot tool:
Setup
claude mcp add --scope user tui-mcp -- npx tui-mcpTools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| launch | Spawn a TUI app in a managed pty |
| kill | Terminate a session |
| list_sessions | List sessions, including recently exited ones |
| status | Get one session's state and exit code |
| resize | Resize the terminal |
| screenshot | Capture terminal as PNG |
| snapshot | Capture terminal as plain text |
| scrollback | Read the buffer including scrolled-off history |
| output | Read the raw pty byte stream (escape sequences included) |
| read_region | Read a rectangular area of the buffer |
| cursor | Get cursor position |
| send_keys | Send a keystroke or combo (Enter, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+Up, q) |
| send_text | Type a string of characters |
| send_mouse | Send mouse events |
| wait_for_text | Wait for a regex pattern to appear |
| wait_for_idle | Wait until the terminal stops changing |
| wait_for_exit | Wait for the process to exit and get its exit code |
Interesting use cases
- remote ops: agent SSHs into a production box, tails logs, greps for errors, restarts a service, watches it come back up. it's reading the same terminal output a human SRE would see. no custom APIs needed.
- legacy system interaction: ncurses admin panels, mysql cli, redis-cli, psql - the agent can drive all of these. stuff that will never get a REST API.
- multi-session orchestration: agent launches 3-4 sessions simultaneously. one running a dev server, one running tests, one tailing logs, one in a debugger. it's basically pair programming with an extra set of hands.
- interactive debuggers: gdb, lldb, pdb, node --inspect. the agent can set breakpoints, step through code, inspect variables.
- infrastructure as conversation: kubectl, terraform, docker, aws cli. agent doesn't need the kubernetes MCP server or the AWS MCP server. it just uses the CLIs directly, same as a human would.
Most MCP servers wrap one specific tool or API. tui-mcp wraps the terminal itself, which is the universal interface that all tools already speak. It's MCP's eval().
Monitor
Watch and control all active sessions from your terminal:
npx tui-mcp monitorSession list on the left, live ANSI-rendered terminal preview on the right. The monitor discovers every running tui-mcp server on the machine and aggregates their sessions.
Keys:
j/kor arrows to move through servers and their sessions,g/Gfor top/bottom, mouse click and scroll also workenteron a session attaches - everything you type passes through to its pty,ctrl+\detachesenteron a server opens the launch panel targeting itsfetches the session's full scrollback into a scrollable view,escreturns to livellaunches a new session on the selected row's server (ctrl+scycles the target)xtwice within 3 seconds kills the selected sessionqquits
Attach, launch, kill, and scrollback need the server to be 1.2 or newer; sessions on older servers are marked ro (read-only) and can still be watched.
How it works
your app <--> node-pty <--> xterm-headless <--> MCP tools
(pty) (terminal emulator) (screenshot, send_keys, etc.)The app runs in a real pseudo-terminal via node-pty. Its output is parsed by xterm-headless (the same terminal emulator that powers VS Code's terminal, but without a DOM). The MCP tools read and interact with that parsed buffer.
Frequently asked questions
What is Tui MCP?
Launch, screenshot and interact with any TUI app.
How do I install Tui MCP?
Follow the installation steps in its documentation, shown on this page and in its repository.
Is Tui MCP open source?
Yes. Its code is on GitHub under the MIT license.
Who maintains Tui MCP?
It is published by nvms. AI.tn lists it but does not maintain or endorse it.
From the community awesome-mcp-servers lists and the project's GitHub repository. Listing is not an endorsement: review a server's code and permissions before giving it access to your data.