Let your AI agent look at your server — on the same screen, over the same SSH, without ever handing it a shell

Maintaining an old VPS with an AI agent goes like this, every time:

AI: I can't see the server. Could you show me the service status? You: (opens a terminal, runs it, pastes) AI: Thanks. Now the config file, please. You: (opens an SFTP client, downloads it, pastes)

The obvious fix is to give the agent a shell. The obvious problem is that a shell does everything, out of sight, and you find out what it did afterwards.

sshboard is an open-source desktop app built for the space in between. You and the agent look at the same server, on the same screen, over one SSH connection — and everything the agent does scrolls past in your window as it happens.

sshboard speaks MCP, so Claude Code (or any MCP client) can use it. What it does not have is a tool that takes an arbitrary string and runs it in a shell. Instead the agent gets:

Every one of those calls is shown in a band on your screen, before it runs. If the screen cannot confirm it showed the line, the call is refused.

Per connection, you list the directories the agent may write to. The default is empty: not one byte. Inside them it can upload files and create directories. Delete, rename, move, chmod, restart services, install packages — those simply do not exist for the agent. You, the person, are not restricted at all.

Install the app from the releases page (Windows x64 / ARM64, macOS Apple Silicon — not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen and Gatekeeper will ask once). Start it, then:

# macOS claude mcp add --scope user sshboard -- /Applications/sshboard.app/Contents/MacOS/sshboard --mcp-stdio-proxy # Windows claude mcp add --scope user sshboard -- "%LOCALAPPDATA% \s shboard \s shboard.exe" --mcp-stdio-proxy Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode The relay reads the app's token itself, so it never lands in your shell history or in Claude Code's config. Register connections in the app (or import them from ~/.ssh/config ), connect, and ask the agent what is wrong with the mail server.

No server to point it at yet? The repository has a throwaway Docker SSH server: sh tools/test-server/up.sh.

Not an autonomous agent that fixes servers while you sleep. Not a replacement for your SSH client or your SFTP client — those stay yours. Not a way to move off the old VPS: the point is that the old setup keeps working, with a second pair of eyes beside you.