cosmotop

cosmotop in MCP server mode exposes a set of system information tools over the MCP protocol, allowing external clients to query real-time metrics about the host. When started with the --mcp flag, cosmotop operates as a MCP server using STDIO transport and the protocol version 2024-11-05, emitting a defined set of information retrieval commands. The available tools exposed by cosmotop include: get_process_info, get_cpu_info, get_memory_info, get_network_info, get_disk_info, get_gpu_info (only if GPUs are detected), get_npu_info (only if NPUs are detected), get_container_info (only if container engines are detected), and get_system_info. This makes cosmotop a capable backend for remote monitoring dashboards or automation scripts that need structured system metrics without the interactive UI.

Prerequisites:

• A host with a supported OS (Linux, macOS, Windows) where you can run a standalone binary.
• Access to download the cosmotop release corresponding to your platform.

Installation steps:

1. Download the cosmotop binary from the official releases page: https://github.com/bjia56/cosmotop/releases/latest
2. Make the binary executable (Linux/macOS): chmod +x cosmotop
3. (Optional) Move the binary to a directory in your PATH, e.g. /usr/local/bin: sudo mv cosmotop /usr/local/bin/
4. Run cosmotop in MCP server mode: cosmotop --mcp

Docker alternative:

• You can also run cosmotop in a container using the provided Docker image: docker run -it --rm --net=host --pid=host ghcr.io/bjia56/cosmotop:latest --mcp

Note:

• In MCP mode, cosmotop will not render the graphical UI; it will listen for MCP protocol requests on STDIO and respond with metric data.

Tips and notes:

• GPU/NPUs: get_gpu_info and get_npu_info are only available if the corresponding hardware is present and supported by cosmotop. If no GPUs/NPUs are detected, these tools may be unavailable.
• Containers: get_container_info is available if a container engine is detected on the host.
• Prometheus-style monitoring and other exporters are described in the standard cosmotop usage; MCP mode focuses on structured API access via the protocol.
• Configuration and themes are unrelated to MCP mode; MCP mode disables the normal graphical UI. The MCP protocol version used is 2024-11-05.
• If you need to customize behavior, you can pass additional -o KEY=VALUE options to cosmotop, but in MCP mode these options may affect the data exposed via the MCP tools.