Tidesman MCP server
What it does
Tidesman is an MCP server that lets AI assistants list, run, inspect, and manage Linux containers on Apple Silicon Macs using Apple's container tool. It communicates directly with the container runtime's background service for faster, more direct access than command-line wrappers.
- List and inspect running or stopped containers to understand what's deployed on your Mac.
- Start, stop, or execute commands inside containers through an AI assistant without typing terminal commands.
- Clean up container images and stopped containers to free disk space.
Tools this server exposes
| Tool | Does |
|---|---|
| system_ping | Check that the container service is reachable. |
| system_disk_usage | Report disk usage for images, containers, and volumes. |
| system_repair | Re-download the engine's own infrastructure images. |
| container_list | List all containers. |
| container_inspect | Show a container's full configuration and state details. |
| container_logs | Fetch a container's recent output. |
| container_run | Create and start a new container from an image. |
| container_exec | Run a command inside a running container. |
| container_start | Start an existing stopped container. |
| container_restart | Gracefully stop and then start a container. |
| container_stop | Gracefully stop a running container. |
| container_kill | Stop a container by sending it a signal. |
| container_delete | Remove a container. |
| container_prune | Remove all stopped containers at once. |
| image_list | List the images already downloaded. |
Before you enable it
An MCP server runs with whatever access you give it. Start with a development account rather than production, and check which tools the server exposes before you let an agent call them unattended.
This server has not seen a commit in 2 mo. It may still work, but nobody is currently fixing it — check the alternatives before you build on it.