Better Unraid MCP

Monitor and manage your Unraid server in plain English, from any MCP client.

Features · Quick start · Tools · MCP features · Configuration · HTTP transport · Security · Development

Better Unraid MCP is a Model Context Protocol server for the Unraid GraphQL API. Connect it to Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, or any other MCP client and ask things like "why is my array degraded?", "tail the syslog", or "restart the Plex container".

Features

Ask a plain question and get a real answer from your server. "Why is my array degraded?" turns into calls to array_status and disk_list, and you find out which disk is unhappy and what SMART thinks of it without opening an SSH session or clicking through WebGUI tabs.

The 67 tools cover most of what you would normally do over SSH or in the WebGUI:

• Diagnose problems in one conversation: unread alerts, CPU and memory pressure, network errors, disk temperatures, SMART health
• Read any log on the server: list them all, tail the syslog, or page through the middle of a huge file
• Manage Docker: container status and logs, per-container resource usage, start and stop, image updates, port conflict detection, boot autostart order
• Control VMs through libvirt, from a graceful shutdown to a hard reset
• Run the array: start or stop it, manage parity checks, review parity history, check the mover
• Triage notifications: read, archive, and clear the alerts you have been putting off
• Watch the UPS during an outage: battery charge, runtime estimate, load
• Go past the API when you need to (optional, via SSH): read any file on the host, such as /boot/logs/syslog-previous, or run a confirmed one-off command
• Work with ZFS: pool health, datasets, snapshots (create, destroy, rollback), and ARC usage
• Reach the host when the API can't: processes, GPU metrics, disk spin, SMART deep reports, User Scripts, VM snapshots
• Manage the platform itself: API keys, native .plg plugin installs, mover control, reboot and shutdown
• Watch things live: WebSocket-fed resources for parity progress, Docker stats, system metrics (CPU, memory, network, temperature), UPS, array state, notifications, and log following (unraid://live/*, unraid://logs/{path})
• Reach the rest of the API with raw graphql_query and a confirm-gated graphql_mutation while dedicated tools catch up

The tools are deliberately paranoid. A destructive tool refuses to run unless the request includes confirm: true, so a stray sentence in a chat can't stop your array. The operations that can really hurt (stopping the array, hard-killing a VM, rebooting the host) also need acknowledge_risk: true. If your client supports MCP elicitation, you get an interactive confirmation prompt instead. Every read works with a viewer-level API key, and MCP_READ_ONLY=true takes every state-changing tool out of the listing.

You don't install anything on the Unraid server. The MCP server runs on your machine, talks to Unraid's built-in GraphQL API with one API key, and starts with a single npx command.

Quick start

1. Create an Unraid API key

On your Unraid server (7.2 or newer), go to Settings > Management Access > API Keys and create a key. Or from the Unraid terminal:

unraid-api apikey --create

[!IMPORTANT] The key controls your server, so treat it like a password and give it the least privilege you need. A viewer-level key is enough for every read-only tool.

2. Add the server to your MCP client

claude mcp add better-unraid \
  -e UNRAID_API_URL=https://tower.local/graphql \
  -e UNRAID_API_KEY=your-api-key \
  -- npx -y better-unraid-mcp@latest

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "better-unraid": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "better-unraid-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "UNRAID_API_URL": "https://tower.local/graphql",
        "UNRAID_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

codex mcp add better-unraid \
  --env UNRAID_API_URL=https://tower.local/graphql \
  --env UNRAID_API_KEY=your-api-key \
  -- npx -y better-unraid-mcp@latest

[mcp_servers.better-unraid]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "better-unraid-mcp@latest"]
env = { UNRAID_API_URL = "https://tower.local/graphql", UNRAID_API_KEY = "your-api-key" }

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "better-unraid": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "better-unraid-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "UNRAID_API_URL": "https://tower.local/graphql",
        "UNRAID_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

If your server uses a self-signed TLS certificate on the LAN, also set UNRAID_ALLOW_SELF_SIGNED=true. To turn on the SSH-backed tools (reading files like /boot/logs/syslog-previous, ZFS, running one-off commands, and the rest of the tools marked SSH below), also pass the UNRAID_SSH_* variables described under Configuration. @latest keeps you on the newest release; pin a version (for example better-unraid-mcp@0.1.1) if you want fully predictable behavior.

Other ways to install

All of them run the same server, and none of them install anything on the Unraid box.

Cautious quickstart (read-only)

Not ready to let a model touch anything? Add MCP_READ_ONLY=true to the environment above and the server registers only the read-only tools. The state-changing tools aren't refused at call time; they never appear at all. Pair that with a VIEWER-role API key and nothing in this server can change your machine.

3. Verify your setup

Before wiring up a client, run the built-in doctor with the same environment:

UNRAID_API_URL=https://tower.local/graphql UNRAID_API_KEY=... npx better-unraid-mcp doctor

It prints one line per check (GraphQL reachability and versions, schema skew against the server's API version, SSH when configured, rate limiting, and read-only mode) and exits non-zero when something is broken:

✓ Reachable in 12 ms — Unraid 7.3.2, API 4.37.4+ad268301, online=true.
✓ Vendored schema matches the server API (4.37.4 vs 4.37.4+ad268301).
⚠ SSH: not configured (optional). Host tools (...) are unavailable; set UNRAID_SSH_* to enable them.
✓ Client-side rate limiting active: 90 request burst, 9/s refill.
✓ read-only mode: disabled — mutating tools are registered (each behind its confirm gate).
doctor: OK

4. Try it

Ask your client:

"What's the status of my Unraid array?"

Tools

Read-only tools never change anything. Destructive tools always require confirm: true; without it they refuse and leave your server alone.

Speed and safety

The SSH channel is one kept-alive connection: it connects lazily, sends keepalive probes, reconnects on its own, and closes after UNRAID_SSH_IDLE_SECONDS of idle time, so commands don't pay for a new handshake each time. GraphQL requests reuse a keep-alive HTTP agent and have a hard 30-second timeout, and idempotent queries get a small jittered retry on transient failures. The busiest reads (system_metrics, array_status, docker_container_list) come from a 5-second snapshot cache, and detailed output includes data_age_ms so you can see how fresh the data is. Long-running shell_exec and docker_container_update calls send MCP progress notifications when the client asks for them (stdio or session-mode HTTP).

All tool output goes through secret redaction: your configured API key, SSH password, and bearer token, plus credential-shaped key/value pairs and JWTs, come back as [redacted]. A client-side rate limiter keeps request bursts inside the Unraid API's throttle, and oversized JSON results are truncated into an envelope that still parses with JSON.parse.

System and storage

Array control

Both tools require an API key with the ADMIN role. They report that the request was issued; run array_status afterward to confirm the result.

Docker

Virtual machines

Notifications

Observability

Plugins

ZFS (SSH)

ZFS ships with Unraid 6.12+. These tools say so plainly when no pools exist.

Host configuration (SSH)

The GraphQL API has nothing for services, share changes, or unassigned devices, so these tools use the same mechanisms as the web UI: the /etc/rc.d/rc.* scripts, emhttpd's form handler through emcmd, and the Unassigned Devices plugin. Every write is checked by reading the result back.

Backup (SSH)

User Scripts (SSH)

API keys

These tools hand the model the credentials that control access to your server, so use them with the same care as the keys themselves.

UPS

Host shell (optional, needs SSH)

The GraphQL API can't reach everything: old boot logs under /boot/logs, /proc, one-off commands. These tools fill that gap over SSH. They are off by default and turn on only when you set the UNRAID_SSH_* variables (see Configuration); without them they refuse and explain how to set it up. docker_stats also falls back to this channel when no fresh live sample is available.

Raw GraphQL (advanced)

These cover the parts of the Unraid API that no dedicated tool wraps yet, such as users and registration. Use a dedicated tool when one exists, because the dedicated tools handle server quirks that these passthroughs don't. The full schema ships with the package at schema/unraid.graphql.

[!NOTE] Tool behavior is checked against the vendored Unraid API 4.37.4 schema and covered by unit tests at 100% coverage. The read-only tools have been run against a live Unraid 7.3 server, but the write paths haven't been widely exercised on live servers yet. Treat destructive tools with care, and please open an issue if anything misbehaves.

MCP features beyond tools

The server is built on the MCP TypeScript SDK v2 (protocol revision 2026-07-28). Clients on older revisions are negotiated down automatically.

Configuration

See .env.example for a copy-paste template.

Remote HTTP transport

For remote or hosted clients, run over Streamable HTTP instead of stdio:

MCP_TRANSPORT=http \
MCP_HTTP_BEARER_TOKEN=some-long-random-token \
UNRAID_API_URL=https://tower.local/graphql \
UNRAID_API_KEY=your-api-key \
npx -y better-unraid-mcp@latest

The MCP endpoint is then POST http://host:3000/mcp, and every request must carry the token:

curl -X POST http://host:3000/mcp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer some-long-random-token" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}'

By default the endpoint is stateless: each POST gets a complete JSON response, and server-initiated messages (progress notifications, elicitation prompts, live-resource updates) are unavailable. Set MCP_HTTP_SESSIONS=true for stateful streamable-HTTP sessions. The client initializes once, sends the returned mcp-session-id header on later requests, receives SSE responses that can carry server-initiated messages, and can end the session with a DELETE. Idle sessions expire after 5 minutes.

The server refuses to start in HTTP mode without MCP_HTTP_BEARER_TOKEN. To run an open endpoint on a trusted network on purpose, set MCP_HTTP_ALLOW_UNAUTHENTICATED=true, and the server logs a warning at startup. Requests without a matching token get a 401, and the token comparison is constant-time.

[!WARNING] Every request uses your privileged Unraid API key upstream. The server binds to localhost by default. To expose it further (including to cloud clients such as ChatGPT connectors), put TLS in front with a reverse proxy and set MCP_HTTP_ALLOWED_HOSTS for DNS-rebinding protection. Never expose the endpoint unauthenticated to an untrusted network.

Docker (HTTP transport)

The image runs only the HTTP transport (MCP_TRANSPORT=http, bound to 0.0.0.0:3000 inside the container) and, like the CLI, refuses to start without MCP_HTTP_BEARER_TOKEN:

services:
  better-unraid-mcp:
    image: ghcr.io/mswdev/better-unraid-mcp:latest
    ports: ["127.0.0.1:3000:3000"]
    environment:
      UNRAID_API_URL: https://tower.local/graphql
      UNRAID_API_KEY: ${UNRAID_API_KEY}
      MCP_HTTP_BEARER_TOKEN: ${MCP_HTTP_BEARER_TOKEN}
      MCP_HTTP_ALLOWED_HOSTS: localhost,mcp.example.com   # DNS-rebinding protection
      # UNRAID_SSH_HOST / UNRAID_SSH_PASSWORD for host tools; MCP_HTTP_SESSIONS=true for subscriptions/elicitation
    restart: unless-stopped

Point your client at http://<host>:3000/mcp with Authorization: Bearer <token>, and put TLS in front before it leaves the LAN. Every release publishes multi-arch (amd64/arm64) images.

Security

The Unraid API key controls your server. Give it the least privilege you need, keep it only in environment variables or your client's secret store, and never commit it to version control.

Development

git clone https://github.com/mswdev/better-unraid-mcp.git
cd better-unraid-mcp
npm install
npm run build      # or: npm run dev

Run the quality gate before every commit (npm run test:coverage also enforces the coverage threshold that CI checks):

npm run typecheck && npm run build && npm test && npm run lint

To contribute, branch off develop, keep one logical change per commit (conventional commits), and open a draft PR into develop. Never hand-edit the vendored schema (schema/unraid.graphql) or the generated types (src/types/unraid/**); refresh them with npm run schema:update and npm run generate.

License

MIT