Santa Binary Authorization MCP server for AI agents

This server enables you to connect and control Santa through a language model that implements the Model Context Protocol (MCP). It acts as an interface between Santa's management tools and AI assistants like Claude, allowing you to use natural language to interact with Santa's security features.

Installation

Prerequisites

Claude Desktop installed on your system
Go development environment (for building from source)

Building and Installing

Clone the repository and build the binary:
```
make
```
Copy the generated binary to a permanent location on your system:
```
cp santa-mcp /path/to/desired/location/
```

Configure Claude Desktop to use the MCP server:

# Edit the claude_desktop_config.json file to point to your santa-mcp binary path
# Then copy it to the Claude configuration directory
cp claude_desktop_config.json ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/

Usage

Available Tools

After completing the installation, launch Claude Desktop. You should see four Santa tools available:

santactl_fileinfo: Get detailed information about files
santactl_status: Check Santa's current status
santactl_sync: Synchronize Santa's rules with the server
santactl_version: Display Santa version information

Example Interactions

You can interact with Santa by asking Claude questions in natural language. For example:

"Why is Santa blocking osascript?"
"Get information about a specific file on my system"
"What is the current status of Santa?"
"What version of Santa am I running?"

Example Session

Claude will use the appropriate santactl commands to gather information and respond to your queries about Santa. The AI can help diagnose blocking issues, analyze files, and provide insights about Santa's configuration.

Limitations

This is a Proof of Concept implementation of the Model Context Protocol server for Santa and is not intended for production use. It serves as a demonstration of how AI assistants can interface with security tools like Santa.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "santa-mcp" '{"command":"santa-mcp","args":[]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "santa-mcp": {
            "command": "santa-mcp",
            "args": []
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "santa-mcp": {
            "command": "santa-mcp",
            "args": []
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect