mcqemu

An MCP server that lets LLM agents manage QEMU virtual machines: launch and stop VMs, inspect them over QMP, manage disk images with qemu-img, take live snapshots, and run commands inside guests through qemu-guest-agent.

Requirements

Linux with QEMU installed (qemu-system-* and qemu-img on PATH)
/dev/kvm access for hardware acceleration (optional — TCG emulation works without it, just slower)
Python 3.11+ managed with uv

Install

# From this checkout
uv sync

# Add to Claude Code
claude mcp add mcqemu -- uv run --directory /path/to/mcqemu mcqemu

What it can do

Group	Tools
Lifecycle	`launch_vm`, `stop_vm`, `pause_vm`, `resume_vm`, `attach_vm`, `forget_vm`
Inspect	`list_vms`, `vm_info`
Live snapshots	`vm_snapshot_create` / `restore` / `delete` / `list`
Disk images	`image_create`, `image_info`, `image_convert`, `image_resize`, `image_snapshot_*`
Guest agent	`guest_ping`, `guest_info`, `guest_exec`, `guest_file_read`, `guest_file_write`

VMs are daemonized QEMU processes with QMP control sockets, so they survive MCP server restarts. The registry lives in ~/.local/share/mcqemu/, sockets in $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/mcqemu/.

Guest tools (guest_*) need qemu-guest-agent installed inside the guest OS; the host-side virtio-serial channel is wired on every launch, so installing the agent in the guest is the only step.

Quick start

image_create(path="~/vms/test.qcow2", size="10G")
launch_vm(name="test", disks=["~/vms/test.qcow2"], iso="~/isos/alpine.iso",
          port_forwards=["2222:22"])
# ... install the OS via the serial console log ...
stop_vm(name="test")
launch_vm(name="test", disks=["~/vms/test.qcow2"])
guest_exec(name="test", command="uname", args=["-a"])

Development

uv run pytest                  # unit tests (QMP and subprocess mocked)
uv run pytest -m integration   # boots a real tiny VM (needs QEMU installed)
uv run ruff check .

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