Homebutler: MCP Server for Multi-Server Homelab Management via Claude

Homebutler is a single Go binary with a built-in Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables Claude and other AI assistants to manage multiple servers from a single interface. The tool addresses the pain point of manually SSH-ing into individual servers for routine tasks like checking disk space or restarting containers.

Setup and Configuration

To use homebutler with Claude Desktop, add this configuration to your MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "homebutler": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "homebutler@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Set up homebutler on your main machine, add remote servers to the configuration file, and Claude can access all of them over SSH. No agent installation is required on remote servers.

Available Tools

Homebutler provides 9 MCP tools that work across multiple servers:

• System status monitoring (CPU, memory, disk, load)
• Docker container management
• Port scanning with process information
• Wake-on-LAN functionality
• Network device discovery
• Alert rules for disk full, high CPU, etc.
• Multi-server management over SSH
• Top processes monitoring
• Server configuration management

All tools work across servers — you can specify which server to query, and homebutler handles the SSH connection automatically.

Technical Details

The tool is a single binary with zero external dependencies, weighing 12MB. It runs on Linux and macOS and includes a web dashboard, TUI, and CLI interface. It works with any MCP-compatible client including Claude Desktop, Cursor, and ChatGPT.

The developer reports daily-driving the tool on a Mac Mini + Raspberry Pi 5 setup, using natural language commands like "what's the disk usage on my Pi" or "restart nginx on the NAS."