MCP Integration

sind includes a built-in Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes its CLI commands as tools for AI assistants. This lets tools like Claude, VS Code Copilot, or Cursor create clusters, check status, manage workers, and control node power states through natural language.

Quick setup

# Claude Desktop
sind mcp claude enable

# VS Code
sind mcp vscode enable

# Cursor
sind mcp cursor enable

To unregister:

sind mcp claude disable
sind mcp vscode disable
sind mcp cursor disable

sind mcp <editor> list shows the MCP servers registered with that editor. enable takes --server-name, --log-level, --config-path and --env KEY=VALUE (e.g. --env SIND_REALM=ci to serve another realm), and for VS Code and Cursor --workspace to register sind in the workspace settings instead; see sind mcp <editor> enable --help.

Manual configuration

If you prefer to configure the MCP server manually, add the following to your editor’s MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sind": {
      "command": "sind",
      "args": ["mcp", "start"]
    }
  }
}

Available tools

Every sind command is exposed as an MCP tool, except:

command groups such as sind get, which only print help
sind help, sind completion and the sind mcp commands
sind enter and sind ssh, which need an interactive terminal
sind get ssh-private-key and sind get munge-key, which print secrets

The tools take the same arguments and flags as the commands, except -v and sind logs --follow, which a tool call cannot use. Flags go in the call’s flags object; a call that puts a flag in args is refused, except for the command after -- in sind_exec.

Each tool tells the client what it does, so that the client can decide when to ask before calling it: the get tools, sind_logs, sind_doctor and sind_version are marked read-only; sind_create_*, sind_power_on and sind_power_unfreeze only add or restore; sind_delete_*, sind_exec and the other sind_power_* tools are marked destructive.

The sind_get_* tools always return JSON: the server runs them with -o json, so they take no -o flag.

To see the full list:

sind mcp tools

This exports the tool definitions to mcp-tools.json. The tools follow the naming convention sind_<command>_<subcommand>, for example:

Tool	Description
`sind_create_cluster`	Create a Slurm cluster
`sind_create_worker`	Add worker nodes to a cluster
`sind_delete_cluster`	Delete a cluster
`sind_get_cluster`	Show cluster health status
`sind_get_nodes`	List nodes
`sind_get_realms`	List all realms
`sind_get_mesh`	Show mesh infrastructure info
`sind_power_shutdown`	Graceful shutdown
`sind_power_reboot`	Graceful reboot
`sind_exec`	Run a command on submitter or controller

HTTP mode

For multi-client setups, sind can serve MCP over HTTP:

sind mcp stream --port 8080

The stream listens on 127.0.0.1 unless --host names another address. It has no authentication, and its tools create and delete containers, so only pass --host 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces) on a network you trust, or put an authenticating proxy in front of it.

Security

The MCP server is not a sandbox. Its tools run sind with your Docker access: sind_exec runs any command inside a cluster, and sind_create_cluster bind-mounts a host directory read-write at /data: the one --data names or, without it, the MCP server’s working directory. Pass data: "volume" to keep host files out. Leaving out sind get ssh-private-key and sind get munge-key keeps those secrets out of routine tool output, but an agent that may call sind_exec can still read them from the nodes. Give an agent the sind tools only where you would let it run sind yourself.