lyshell

LyShell — 内置 MCP 服务端的 Windows 终端 · A Windows terminal with a built-in MCP server: SSH/Telnet/串口/local PTY、SFTP、快捷命令、AI Agent、Python。

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Install / Use

claude mcp add liangyou09 -- npx -y github:liangyou09/lyshell

If the server publishes to npm under a different name, use that package instead — check the repo README.

About this skill

🔌

MCP Server

Model Context Protocol server

Quality Score

78/100

Skill content

View source on GitHub

💻 LyShell

🔌 Your terminal, now AI's terminal too. LyShell is a Windows terminal with a built-in MCP server — letting Claude Code and other AI clients drive your SSH / Telnet / serial / local PTY sessions directly. Plus AI Agent launcher, plugin system, and Python scripting.

English | 简体中文

✨ Highlights · 🔗 MCP · 🤖 AI Agents · 🧩 Plugins · 🚀 Quick Start · ❓ FAQ

✨ Highlights

| | | |---|---| | 🔗 MCP Server — Expose your terminals to Claude Code and other AI clients, with per-session authorization and audit log | 🤖 Agent Launcher — Run Claude Code, Aider, Copilot CLI, or any custom CLI in a clean transient terminal | | 🧩 Plugin System — Extend with Python or Node.js plugins, each running under granular permissions | 🐍 Python Engine — Script terminal automation through a built-in LyShell API |

📥 Install

Download the latest portable build from Releases — no installation needed, just download and run.

| Platform | Format | Architecture | Requirements | |----------|--------|--------------|--------------| | 🪟 Windows | Portable (.exe) | x64 | Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit |

🚧 Currently Windows only — macOS and Linux builds are not yet available.

🔗 MCP Integration

This is what makes LyShell different. It serves as an MCP server, letting external AI clients like Claude Code control terminals via the MCP protocol — listing sessions, sending commands, reading output, transferring files, and managing connections.

📖 Configuration — see MCP Configuration. In most cases you don't configure anything by hand: launch an agent from the Agent Launcher and ask it to configure LyShell as its MCP server itself. Registration configs are emitted in JSON / CLI / TOML to fit different clients.

Tools

| Tool | Capability | Description | |------|-----------|-------------| | list_sessions | read | List sidebar sessions | | send_input | interactiveWrite | Send text, autoNewline support | | send_and_wait | interactiveWrite | Send and capture response, strips echo + ANSI | | execute_command | execute / localExecute | Run via independent exec channel (SSH only) | | run_on_sessions | execute / localExecute | Broadcast command, max 50 sessions, concurrency 10 | | read_output | read | Read N lines of terminal output | | upload_file / download_file | fileWrite | SFTP file transfer | | read_file / stat_file / list_files | read | Remote file inspection, recursive + glob | | create_session | sessionControl | Create/reuse saved session, auto-dedup by target | | reconnect_session | sessionControl | Reconnect dropped connection | | close_session | sessionControl | Disconnect without deleting the saved session | | open_connection_dialog | sessionControl | Open the new-connection dialog for user input | | read_session_notes | read | Read session summary, notes, tags | | write_session_notes | sessionMetadataWrite | Update summary, notes, tags | | wait_for_prompt | read | Wait for shell prompt or regex | | tail_until | read | Poll output until pattern matches |

Security

🔑 Per-session authorization — each terminal gets its own scoped permission
🚪 Capability gates — enforced server-side on every endpoint
🛡️ Destructive-command check — scans for rm -rf, dd if=, fork bombs
🔒 Shared PTY locking — MCP vs human input never collide
📊 Audit panel — calendar + filter + pagination, accessible from the title bar

⚠️ Full-screen TUI apps (vim, htop, less) are not supported over MCP — ANSI stripping garbles alternate-screen sequences. Use the LyShell UI native terminal instead.

🤖 AI Agents

Agent-agnostic terminal — no lock-in to any AI tool. Launch any CLI agent and it runs in a regular terminal with full scrollback, split panes, and IME support.

| Agent | Command | |-------|---------| | 🧠 Claude Code | claude | | 🤝 Aider | aider | | 🐙 Copilot CLI | gh copilot |

Custom agents: Any CLI tool can be registered — name, command, icon, working directory, env vars. Sessions are transient: close the tab, it's gone.

🧩 Plugin System & Python Scripting

Plugins

Permission-gated host for Python (one-shot / persistent) and Node.js (persistent) plugins. Install from local directory, ZIP, or remote URL. Each plugin runs with its own scoped authorization — granular permissions (read / write / execute / file / session control) with path safety, destructive-command confirmation, and shared-PTY locking.

⚠️ Plugins activate on startup (onStartup) today. Event-based activation and declarative UI contributions are not wired up yet.

📦 Ready-to-run examples in examples/.

Python Engine

Embedded Python with LyShell API for terminal automation:

session = LyShell.get_current_session()
LyShell.execute("ls -la")
LyShell.send("hello\n")
LyShell.wait_for("prompt$")

Environment variables: LYSHELL_SESSION_ID · LYSHELL_SESSION_TYPE · LYSHELL_HOST · LYSHELL_PORT.

Python path auto-detected from system PATH, configurable in settings.

💡 For long-running or scheduled tasks, consider Node.js plugins via the Plugin System — they're a better fit.

🚀 Quick Start

First Connection

Click + at the top of the session list → SSH
Fill in host, port, username, password/private key
Click Connect — tab turns 🟢 green

💡 For network devices needing shell → enable, add those in Shell Enter Commands — LyShell sends them sequentially.

Quick Connect

Ctrl+Alt+F from any app → search → Enter to connect.

Multi-Server Monitoring

Click a session → Ctrl+Shift+V to split vertically → click another session. Layout auto-saves.

File Transfer

Upload — drag from desktop to File Panel
Download — double-click remote file or right-click → Download
Progress — real-time speed + ETA, auto MD5 on completion
History — file, size, path, MD5 recorded; supports re-download
Security — independent SSH connection (never blocks terminal), SFTP or TCP-over-SSH tunnel; no plaintext fallback even when AllowTcpForwarding is disabled
Download directory — default ~/Downloads/LyShell/, optional auto-create server subdirectory for archiving

Quick Commands

Right-click the quick commands bar → Edit Group → add commands like tail -f /var/log/syslog. Trigger with Ctrl+F1–F12. Up to 12 commands × 5 groups.

Session Management

📌 Pin — hover card → click 📌
📋 Clone session — double-click tab left half
⚡ Clone channel (no re-auth) — double-click tab right half (SSH only)
🔍 Search — type name/host/tag in search box

Terminal Tips

Select text → auto-copy · Right-click → paste · Middle-click → search bar
Ctrl+F → in-terminal search (regex, case-sensitive, cross-tab)
Encoding issues → edit session, switch UTF-8 / GBK / GB2312
Click cols × rows in status bar → clear screen
Click buffer count → scroll to bottom; double-click → clear scrollback

🔌 Connection Types & Terminal

| Type | Key params | Notes | |------|-----------|-------| | 🖥️ SSH | password or private key; port 22 | Post-login commands, keepalive; dual-click clone | | 📟 Telnet | host + port 23 | Full IAC negotiation | | 🔌 Serial | COM port, baud 115200 (9600–921600), 8N1 | Auto-detects ports | | 💻 Local PTY | cmd.exe / PowerShell | Configurable working directory + env |

Terminal: GPU-accelerated rendering, full ANSI + 256 colors. Scrollback up to 100,000 lines. Split panes (horizontal/vertical), drag-to-split. Quick commands bar Ctrl+F1–F12. Tab status: 🟢 Connected · 🔴 Error · ⚪ Disconnected · 🔵 New output.

🎨 Themes

5 presets + custom. Instant switch, no restart.

| Theme | Style | Mode | |-------|-------|------| | Graphite | Deep graphite + tungsten amber (default) | Dark | | Slate | Blue-tinted slate, amber accent | Dark | | Carbon | Neutral charcoal, no blue cast | Dark | | Ember | Warm walnut brown + warm amber | Dark | | Paper | Natural warm paper, graphite ink | Light |

Custom: pick a background and accent color, LyShell auto-builds a complete harmonious theme.

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

| Shortcut | Action | |----------|--------| | Ctrl + Alt + F | Toggle float window | | Ctrl + F | Terminal search | | Ctrl + F1 ~ F12 | Quick command 1–12 | | Ctrl + Shift + H | Horizontal split | | Ctrl + Shift + V | Vertical split | | Right-click | Paste | | Middle-click | Search bar |

⚙️ Configuration

JSON files in %APPDATA%\lyshell\:

sessions.json · preferences.json · quickCommands.json · agents.json · download-history.json · download-config.json · mcp-server.json

AES-256-CBC encrypted export/import for sessions and quick commands.

❓ FAQ

<details> <summary>SSH garbled Chinese characters?</summary> Edit session, switch encoding from UTF-8 to GBK or GB2312. </details> <details> <summary>Serial port no output?</summary> Verify port + baud rate → check no other program uses it → some devices need Enter to activate. </details> <details> <summary>File manager not showing?</summary> SSH sessions only. Ensure the active tab is an SSH connection. </details> <details> <summary>How to reset all configuration?</summary> Delete all JSON files in `%APPDATA%\lyshell\` and restart. </details> <details> <summary>Ctrl+Alt+F not working?</summary> May be taken by another app. Reconfigure in LyShell settings. </details> <details> <summary>Where are downloaded files?</summary> Default `~/Downloads/LyShell/`. Change in settings. </details>

📄 License

LyShell is free to download and use, but the source code is not yet open. Reverse engineering and redistribution of the binary are not permitted without prior permission. See LICENSE.

<a href="https://github.com/liangyou09/lyshell_release">GitHub</a> · <a href="https://github.com/liangyou09/lyshell_release/issues">Issues</a> · <a href="https://github.com/liangyou09/lyshell_release/releases">Releases</a> · <a href="CHANGELOG.md">Changelog</a> · <a href="CONTRIBUTING.md">Contributing</a>