⚠️ DEPRECATED — This repository has been consolidated into the datacore monorepo at packages/dev-server. This repo is archived and no longer maintained. All future development happens in the monorepo.

azure-dev-server

Remote MCP server that gives Claude Desktop full filesystem and shell access over HTTPS — a cloud-hosted Desktop Commander running on Azure Container Apps.

What it does

Exposes 8 MCP tools so Claude Desktop can read, write, edit, search, and run commands on a remote machine:

Tool	Description
ping	Health check
read_file	Read a file with line numbers
write_file	Write or append to a file
edit_file	Surgical find-and-replace (single occurrence)
search_files	Grep across a directory with optional file pattern
list_directory	List files/dirs with recursion depth
run_command	Execute a shell command, returns stdout/stderr
get_file_info	File metadata (size, type, modified time)

Why it exists

Claude Desktop's built-in Desktop Commander only works locally. This project gives Claude Desktop the same capabilities on a remote Azure machine — useful when the workspace lives in the cloud or needs to be shared across devices.

Quickstart (local)

git clone https://github.com/david3xu/azure-dev-server.git
cd azure-dev-server
pnpm install
pnpm run build
MCP_API_KEY=your-key WORKSPACE=/path/to/your/workspace pnpm start

Health check:

curl http://localhost:3001/health

Connect to the live instance

The server runs at:

https://ca-dev-server.purplegrass-77b8c839.australiaeast.azurecontainerapps.io

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "azure-dev": {
      "url": "https://ca-dev-server.purplegrass-77b8c839.australiaeast.azurecontainerapps.io/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "x-api-key": "<your-api-key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Reload the window (Cmd+Shift+P → "Reload Window") — the 8 tools appear in the MCP panel.

VSCode + GitHub Copilot

Add to .vscode/mcp.json (per workspace) or user settings.json:

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "azure-dev": {
        "type": "http",
        "url": "https://ca-dev-server.purplegrass-77b8c839.australiaeast.azurecontainerapps.io/mcp",
        "headers": {
          "x-api-key": "<your-api-key>"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop only supports stdio transport, so use mcp-remote as an HTTP bridge.

Create ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/azure-dev-mcp-bridge.sh:

#!/bin/zsh
set -euo pipefail

exec /opt/homebrew/bin/npx -y mcp-remote \
  "https://ca-dev-server.purplegrass-77b8c839.australiaeast.azurecontainerapps.io/mcp" \
  --transport http-first \
  --header "x-api-key:<your-api-key>"

Then add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "azure-dev": {
      "command": "/bin/zsh",
      "args": ["/Users/<you>/Library/Application Support/Claude/azure-dev-mcp-bridge.sh"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop (Cmd+Q, reopen).

Terminal (interactive shell inside the container)

Requires Azure CLI.

Step 1 — Add the alias to your shell profile (once):

echo "alias azure-dev-shell='az containerapp exec \\
  --name ca-dev-server \\
  --resource-group rg-datacore \\
  --command bash'" >> ~/.zshrc

Step 2 — Load it in your current terminal:

source ~/.zshrc

Step 3 — Connect:

azure-dev-shell

You will see INFO: Successfully connected to container: 'ca-dev-server' and a shell prompt.

Tips inside the container:

• clear is not available — use Ctrl+L instead
• The prompt may show sh-5.2# — run bash to switch to a full Bash session
• /workspace is the Azure Files mount — files written here persist across restarts
• Exit with Ctrl+D

Verify the connection

After connecting via any client, run these tools in order:

1. ping — should return "alive — workspace: /workspace"
2. list_directory with path: "/" — lists the workspace root
3. write_file then read_file — confirms read/write access

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Default	Description
MCP_API_KEY	Yes	dev-key-change-me	API key sent in x-api-key header
WORKSPACE	No	process.cwd()	Root directory for all file operations
PORT	No	3001	HTTP port

Deploy to Azure Container Apps

Requires Azure CLI. No local Docker needed — image is built in the cloud:

# One-time setup
az group create --name rg-datacore --location australiaeast
az acr create --name acrdevserver --resource-group rg-datacore --sku Basic --admin-enabled true
az containerapp env create --name cae-dev-server --resource-group rg-datacore --location australiaeast

# Build + deploy
az acr build --registry acrdevserver --image azure-dev-server:latest --file Dockerfile .

ACR_PASS=$(az acr credential show --name acrdevserver --query "passwords[0].value" -o tsv)
az containerapp create \
  --name ca-dev-server \
  --resource-group rg-datacore \
  --environment cae-dev-server \
  --image acrdevserver.azurecr.io/azure-dev-server:latest \
  --registry-server acrdevserver.azurecr.io \
  --registry-username acrdevserver \
  --registry-password "$ACR_PASS" \
  --target-port 3001 --ingress external \
  --min-replicas 1 --max-replicas 3 \
  --cpu 0.5 --memory 1.0Gi \
  --env-vars "MCP_API_KEY=<your-key>" "NODE_ENV=production" "PORT=3001" "WORKSPACE=/workspace"

Re-deploy after code changes:

az acr build --registry acrdevserver --image azure-dev-server:latest --file Dockerfile .
az containerapp update --name ca-dev-server --resource-group rg-datacore \
  --image acrdevserver.azurecr.io/azure-dev-server:latest

Development

pnpm run check      # format + lint + type-check + build + test (all layers)
pnpm run test       # tests only
pnpm run format     # auto-format src/ and tests/

All 7 constraint layers active: CI → pre-commit hook → ESLint → TypeScript strict → tests → Prettier → Zod schemas.

Tech stack

• @modelcontextprotocol/sdk — Streamable HTTP transport
• Express 5 — HTTP server
• Zod — input validation on all tools
• TypeScript strict mode, Node.js 22, pnpm

License

MIT