GhostLink

A security-hardened MCP server that gives AI coding agents safe, deterministic access to local repositories.

Add it to any MCP client that supports STDIO. For Claude Code, create .mcp.json in the target repo root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ghostlink": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@bgorzelic/ghostlink"],
      "env": {
        "GHOSTLINK_REPO_ROOT": "/path/to/target/repo"
      }
    }
  }
}

Then run claude in that directory — six repo tools appear, all confined to GHOSTLINK_REPO_ROOT. Every tool call returns the same deterministic ToolEnvelope:

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": { ... },
  "provenance": { "tool": "repo.search", "timestamp": "2026-02-24T...", "duration_ms": 42 }
}

On error, "error": { "code": "...", "message": "..." } replaces "data". Full tool schemas: docs/TOOLS.md.

Tools

Tool	Description
repo.search	Ripgrep-powered regex search with glob filtering, deterministic ordering, and output caps (max 200 results)
repo.read_file	File read with size caps (max 10MB), binary detection, and truncation flags
repo.apply_patch	Unified diff patching with dry-run mode, full sandbox validation, and atomic rollback on failure
repo.run	Curated command execution (test, lint, typecheck, build, smoke) -- no arbitrary shell, allowlisted args only
git.status	Normalized git status with branch info, ahead/behind tracking, and sorted file entries
git.diff	Staged or unstaged diff with path filtering, sandbox validation, and output caps (max 2MB)

What is GhostLink?

GhostLink is a local-first Model Context Protocol server that exposes your codebase to AI coding agents through a small set of policy-gated tools. It solves a specific problem: AI agents need to search, read, patch, and verify code, but giving them raw shell access is a liability. GhostLink provides a sandboxed capability plane where every tool call is confined to a single repository root, every output follows a deterministic JSON shape, and every invocation is audit-logged.

Why GhostLink?

Capability	What it means
Secure local dev plane	Repo-root sandbox, no shell execution, JSONL audit trail on every tool call
Deterministic output	Same input produces the same JSON envelope shape -- enables golden tests and predictable agent consumption
Policy enforcement	Command allowlists, output caps, truncation flags, timeout enforcement -- the AI cannot do unbounded damage
Agent loop foundation	Built for the search, read, patch, verify cycle that autonomous coding agents run in a loop
Multi-server composition	One GhostLink instance per repo, composable with other MCP servers in the same client session
Production-ready Phase 2 base	Transport abstraction, schema versioning, and auth hook seams are preserved in the architecture today

Architecture

GhostLink is a three-layer stack designed for extensibility without core changes:

flowchart TD
    T["Transport -- src/index.ts<br/>STDIO now, HTTP/SSE in Phase 2"]
    S["Server factory -- src/server.ts<br/>Transport-agnostic tool registration via MCP SDK + Zod schemas"]
    TL["Tools -- src/core/tools/*<br/>Six tools, each returning ToolEnvelope&lt;T&gt;"]
    P["Policy -- src/core/policy/*<br/>Sandbox enforcement, audit logging, output caps"]
    T --> S --> TL --> P

The createServer() factory knows nothing about transport. Adding HTTP/SSE in Phase 2 means writing a new transport binding and auth middleware -- the server factory and all tool implementations remain unchanged. Phase 3 (agent runtime) adds memory resources and orchestration as consumers of GhostLink, not modifications to it.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• ripgrep (brew install ripgrep)
• A git repository to expose

Install

From npm:

npm install @bgorzelic/ghostlink

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/bgorzelic/ghostlink.git
cd ghostlink
npm install
npm run build

Smoke Test (Raw STDIO)

GhostLink speaks JSON-RPC 2.0 over STDIO. Test it directly:

echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}' | \
  GHOSTLINK_REPO_ROOT=/path/to/target/repo node dist/index.js

This returns all 6 tools and their schemas.

Client Configuration

GhostLink works with any MCP client that supports STDIO transport. The npx snippet at the top of this page works everywhere; a source checkout uses node with the built entry point instead:

{
  "ghostlink": {
    "command": "node",
    "args": ["/absolute/path/to/ghostlink/dist/index.js"],
    "env": {
      "GHOSTLINK_REPO_ROOT": "/path/to/target/repo"
    }
  }
}

Client	Where the config goes
Claude Code	.mcp.json in the target repo root (mcpServers key), then run claude there
Claude Desktop	~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (mcpServers key), then restart
Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, others	Your client's MCP server configuration -- consult its documentation for the file location

The transport is always STDIO. Ready-to-use .mcp.json and CLAUDE.md templates for target projects live in templates/.

Security Model

GhostLink enforces defense-in-depth at every layer:

• Repo-root sandbox -- All file operations confined to GHOSTLINK_REPO_ROOT. Path traversal, symlink escape, null bytes, and absolute paths outside the root are all rejected before any filesystem access.
• No shell execution -- repo.run uses spawn with shell: false. Commands are limited to a fixed allowlist (test, lint, typecheck, build, smoke) with per-command argument allowlists. Environment is stripped to six safe variables.
• Output caps -- Every tool that returns bulk data enforces hard maximums (200 search results, 10MB file reads, 200KB stdout/stderr, 2MB diffs). Truncation is flagged, never silent.
• Atomic patch rollback -- repo.apply_patch validates all paths and computes all patches before writing anything. If any write fails, completed writes are rolled back to their original state.
• Timeout enforcement -- repo.run kills processes at configurable timeouts (default 120s, hard cap 300s) with SIGTERM then SIGKILL.

Full threat model and mitigations: docs/SECURITY.md.

Audit Logging

Every tool call produces a JSONL audit entry: {ts, tool, ok, duration_ms, error_code?, repo_root}.

GHOSTLINK_LOG	Behavior
stdout (default)	JSONL audit lines written to stderr
file	JSONL written to logs/ghostlink.jsonl (auto-rotates at 10MB)
off	No logging

Set via environment variable:

GHOSTLINK_LOG=file GHOSTLINK_REPO_ROOT=/path/to/repo node dist/index.js

Prompt Templates

docs/PROMPTS.md contains ready-to-use prompts for high-autonomy agent operation, including orchestrator prompts, sub-agent role definitions (Protocol Engineer, Toolsmith, Security Reviewer, Test Engineer, Docs Engineer), and multi-instance coordination patterns.

Development

npm install          # Install dependencies
npm test             # Run test suite (108 tests via Vitest)
npm run lint         # ESLint
npm run typecheck    # TypeScript strict mode check
npm run build        # Compile to dist/
npm run dev          # Dev mode with auto-reload (tsx watch)

Full verification after edits:

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

Documentation

Document	Description
docs/TOOLS.md	Canonical tool schemas (versioned public API)
docs/SECURITY.md	Threat model and mitigations
docs/QUICKSTART.md	Setup, smoke tests, and client configuration walkthrough
docs/INSPECTOR.md	MCP Inspector manual testing guide
docs/PROMPTS.md	Agent prompts for orchestration and sub-agent roles
docs/ROADMAP_DETAILED.md	Full product roadmap with Phase 2 and Phase 3 deliverables
docs/WHY_GHOSTLINK.md	Strategic value proposition and architecture rationale
docs/ENGINEERING_REPORT_v0.1.0.md	v0.1.0 ship report with milestone history and decision log
templates/	Ready-to-use CLAUDE.md and .mcp.json templates for target projects

Roadmap

Phase 1 -- Local STDIO [Shipped, v0.1.0]

Deterministic tool surface, repo-root sandbox, curated command execution, 108 tests, JSONL audit logging, npm package published.

Phase 2 -- Remote Transport [Planned]

HTTP/SSE transport, OAuth 2.1 authentication, multi-user tenant separation, per-tenant rate limiting, schema versioning, structured audit logging with correlation IDs.

Phase 3 -- Agent Runtime [Future]

Persistent memory resources exposed via MCP, optional policy-gated memory write tools, orchestration layer (external to GhostLink), evaluation loops, sub-agent coordination framework.

License

ISC