MCP¶

systems-manager exposes the same capability several ways: as MCP tools an agent calls, as a Python API you import, and as a CLI for direct package management. The full ecosystem role and concept map are in Overview.

As an MCP server¶

Once deployed, the server registers consolidated, action-routed tool modules. Each module dispatches on an action argument, which keeps the LLM tool surface small while covering a broad operation set.

Tool	Operations
`sm_system_operations`	install / update / clean / optimize, OS + hardware statistics, package search, health check, uptime, env vars
`sm_service_operations`	manage system services
`sm_process_operations`	inspect and manage processes
`sm_network_operations`	network analysis
`sm_disk_operations`	manage disks
`sm_user_operations`	user and group management
`sm_file_operations`	file and log management
`sm_cron_operations`	manage cron jobs
`sm_firewall_operations`	firewall management

Example agent prompts that map onto these tools:

"Update the system and install git and htop" → sm_system_operations
"Show the hardware statistics for this host" → sm_system_operations
"Which processes are using the most memory?" → sm_process_operations

Tool modules are individually togglable with environment switches (for example, MISCTOOL) and can be filtered at runtime with --tools / --toolsets or the MCP_ENABLED_TOOLS / MCP_DISABLED_TOOLS variables.

As a Python API¶

detect_and_create_manager() returns the appropriate SystemsManagerBase implementation for the current operating system (apt, dnf, zypper, pacman, or Windows), so the same calls work across distributions.

from systems_manager.systems_manager import detect_and_create_manager

manager = detect_and_create_manager(silent=True)

# Reads — telemetry that degrades gracefully
os_stats = manager.get_os_statistics()         # CPU, memory, load, OS metadata
hw_stats = manager.get_hardware_statistics()   # hardware inventory
logs = manager.get_system_logs(lines=100)      # recent journal / system logs

Target a remote host from the inventory (over plain SSH, no remote daemon):

# Reads SYSTEMS_MANAGER_HOST or an explicit host from the XDG inventory
manager = detect_and_create_manager(host="node-02")
remote_os_stats = manager.get_os_statistics()

See Multi-Host for the zero-script remote telemetry and control plane.

As a CLI¶

The systems-manager console script drives package management and host maintenance directly:

# Update packages and install applications
systems-manager --update --install "git,curl,htop"

# Install Python modules
systems-manager --python "ruff,pytest"

# Clean and optimize the system
systems-manager --clean --optimize

# Display telemetry
systems-manager --os-stats
systems-manager --hw-stats

Bootstrap the secure, least-privilege sudo wrapper (see Sudo Security):

systems-manager --setup-sudo

Run systems-manager --help for the complete flag list.