What is Mcp Unix Manual

mcp-unix-manual is an MCP server that provides Unix command documentation directly within conversations on Claude, enabling users to access help pages, man pages, and usage information seamlessly.

Use cases

Use cases include seeking help with specific Unix commands, exploring available commands on a system, and confirming the availability of commands for troubleshooting or learning purposes.

How to use

To use mcp-unix-manual, install it via pip or uv, then interact with it in Claude by asking for command documentation, listing available commands, or checking if a specific command exists on your system.

Key features

Key features include retrieving command documentation, listing common Unix commands categorized by function, and verifying the existence of specific commands along with their version information.

Where to use

mcp-unix-manual is useful in software development, system administration, and educational contexts where Unix command knowledge is essential.

Unix Manual Server (MCP)

An MCP server that provides Unix command documentation directly within Claude conversations.

Features

• Get command documentation: Retrieve help pages, man pages, and usage information for Unix commands
• List common commands: Discover available commands on your system, categorized by function
• Check command existence: Verify if a specific command is available and get its version information

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.13+
• Claude Desktop or any MCP-compatible client

Setup

1. Clone this repository
2. Install the package:

pip install -e .
# or
uv install -e .

3. Install the server in Claude Desktop:

mcp install unix_manual_server.py
# uv
uv run mcp install unix_manual_server.py

Usage

Once installed, you can use the server’s tools directly in Claude:

Get command documentation

I need help with the grep command. Can you show me the documentation?

List common commands

What Unix commands are available on my system?

Check if a command exists

Is the awk command available on my system?

Development

To test the server locally without installing it in Claude:

mcp dev unix_manual_server.py

Security

The server takes precautions to prevent command injection by:

• Validating command names against a regex pattern
• Executing commands directly without using shell
• Setting timeouts on all command executions
• Only checking for documentation, never executing arbitrary commands

Logging

Logs are saved to unix-manual-server.log in the same directory as the script, useful for debugging.

• use @modelcontextprotocol/inspector with npx under the hood.

uv run mcp dev unix_manual_server.py

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv run unix_manual_server.py

License

MIT

Created with the MCP Python SDK. For more information about MCP, visit modelcontextprotocol.io.