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.
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:
claude mcp add --scope user tui-mcp -- npx tui-mcp| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| launch | Spawn a TUI app in a managed pty |
| kill | Terminate a session |
| list_sessions | List active sessions |
| resize | Resize the terminal |
| screenshot | Capture terminal as PNG |
| snapshot | Capture terminal as plain text |
| read_region | Read a rectangular area of the buffer |
| cursor | Get cursor position |
| send_keys | Send a keystroke or combo (Enter, Ctrl+C, 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 |
- 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().
Watch all active sessions in real-time from your terminal:
npx tui-mcp monitorSession list on the left, live ANSI-rendered terminal preview on the right. j/k to navigate sessions, Enter to toggle fullscreen, q to quit. Requires the MCP server to be running.
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.