sysinternals-mcp

An MCP server that wraps the Microsoft Sysinternals tool suite so AI coding assistants can drive Windows process introspection, binary triage, and ACL audit through natural-language prompts. Built on FastMCP, Python 3.11+, Windows-first.

This server ships zero Sysinternals binaries. You download the Sysinternals Suite yourself from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ and point the server at your install directory.

What it can do

Group	Tools
Setup	check_sysinternals_setup
Bootstrap	bootstrap_sysinternals, accept_sysinternals_eula
Handles	handle_list, parse_handle_output
Binaries	sigcheck, parse_sigcheck_output
Processes	pslist, parse_pslist_output, psinfo, parse_psinfo_output, listdlls, parse_listdlls_output
ACLs	accesschk, parse_accesschk_output
Network	tcpvcon, parse_tcpvcon_output
Autostart	autoruns, parse_autoruns_output
CPU info	coreinfo, parse_coreinfo_output
Crash dumps	procdump, parse_procdump_output
Strings	strings, parse_strings_output
ProcMon	list_procmon_recipes, get_procmon_recipe, get_procmon_capture_commands, get_capture_instructions, analyze_pml

Every live-execute tool takes a target argument:

• target="local" — the server runs the Sysinternals binary as a subprocess on the local machine and returns the parsed markdown.
• target="remote" — the server returns a LabLink-first dispatch block: a fenced powershell command, a recommended transport order (LabLink → PSRemoting → manual paste), and a JSON sidecar an LLM can hand straight to any MCP that actually has remote-exec tools. You run the command on the remote target, then pipe the captured stdout back into the matching parse_<tool>_output tool. Nothing in sysinternals-mcp is coupled to any particular remote-execution MCP — see Remote workflows below.

Install (Windows)

1. Get the Sysinternals Suite

The fastest path is the new bootstrap tool — see Bootstrap install below. If you prefer to install manually, download SysinternalsSuite.zip from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/sysinternals-suite and extract it. The default location this server probes is C:\Sysinternals, but you can put it anywhere — see Configuration.

2. Pre-accept the EULAs

Every Sysinternals binary prompts for EULA acceptance on first run. Without acceptance the binary writes nothing to stdout and the MCP tools cannot parse output. After install, run check_sysinternals_setup once — for any tool with EULA accepted? = no the tool returns the exact reg add command you need to run to pre-accept under the current user account. Re-run check_sysinternals_setup to confirm.

Alternatively call accept_sysinternals_eula(scope="user") once and the MCP will return the full reg-add script for every known tool. Or run each tool once with -accepteula (the server passes that flag on every invocation anyway; the only purpose of pre-accepting is to make the registry probe report a clean state).

3. Install the MCP server

# Install uv if you have not already.
winget install astral-sh.uv

# Clone + run from source.
git clone https://github.com/nijosmsft/sysinternals-mcp C:\git\sysinternals-mcp
cd C:\git\sysinternals-mcp
uv sync

4. Wire it into your MCP client

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sysinternals": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "C:\\git\\sysinternals-mcp",
               "python", "-m", "sysinternals_mcp.server"],
      "env": {
        "SYSINTERNALS_MCP_DIR": "C:\\Sysinternals"
      }
    }
  }
}

The top-level key is mcpServers for Claude Code / Claude Desktop / Cursor / Copilot CLI, and servers for VS Code GitHub Copilot.

Bootstrap install

The bootstrap_sysinternals tool lets an LLM walk the user through installing the suite without leaving the chat.

bootstrap_sysinternals(target="local",
                       install_method="zip",     # or "winget" or "live"
                       install_dir="C:\\Sysinternals")

The first call returns a CONSENT REQUIRED block asking the user to accept the Sysinternals EULA — the LLM is expected to read it to the user verbatim. After the user answers, the LLM re-invokes the tool with accept_eula=True to receive the actual install script.

Three install methods:

• zip — Invoke-WebRequest on SysinternalsSuite.zip (auto-picks ARM64 build via $env:PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE), Expand-Archive to install_dir.
• winget — winget install --id Microsoft.Sysinternals (not available on Windows Server Core).
• live — per-binary Invoke-WebRequest from https://live.sysinternals.com/<binary>. Useful for restricted networks that allow only HTTPS GET.

Bypass the prompt for a whole session by setting SYSINTERNALS_MCP_ACCEPT_EULA=1 on the server before launch.

Configuration

Env var	Purpose
SYSINTERNALS_MCP_DIR	Directory containing the Sysinternals binaries. Searched first; falls back to PATH and default paths.
SYSINTERNALS_MCP_ACCEPT_EULA	Set to 1 to pre-accept the EULA at server startup — bootstrap_sysinternals skips the consent block.

When SYSINTERNALS_MCP_DIR is unset the server probes (in order):

1. Each tool's name on PATH via where.exe.
2. C:\Sysinternals\
3. C:\Tools\Sysinternals\
4. %ProgramFiles%\Sysinternals\

The probe is cached at process start. If you move the install while the server is running, restart the server.

Remote workflows

LabLink is a lightweight Go-based MCP server for remote command execution against Windows lab machines. sysinternals-mcp is transport-agnostic but opinionated about LabLink: every target="remote" tool emits a recommended-dispatch order with LabLink first, plus a JSON sidecar that an LLM can hand straight to LabLink's lablink.execute_command. The pattern is:

1. Call the live tool with target="remote" to get the dispatch block (markdown + JSON sidecar).
2. Run the command on the remote machine via your transport of choice — LabLink, PowerShell remoting, manual paste.
3. Pipe the stdout back into the matching parse_<tool>_output tool (the parse_with field in the JSON sidecar tells the LLM which).

Example transports — pick whichever fits your environment:

• LabLink (recommended)

  lablink.execute_command(node="<name>",
                          command="C:\\Sysinternals\\handle.exe -accepteula -p chrome",
                          shell="powershell",
                          timeout=120)
  

• PowerShell remoting

  Invoke-Command -ComputerName <host> -ScriptBlock {
      C:\Sysinternals\handle.exe -accepteula -p chrome
  } | Set-Content C:\local\out.txt

• Manual / RDP / scp

  Copy-paste the command, capture the output, paste it back.

The ProcMon workflow follows the same shape: get_capture_instructions(target="remote", ...) returns a full runbook that includes the start / wait / stop commands plus three example transports for pulling the resulting .pml back.

ProcMon recipes

Three bundled filter recipes:

• file_io_only — file system activity for the target process(es)
• network_only — TCP/UDP send + receive
• process_lifecycle — process/thread create + exit

Each recipe is a small text descriptor. The descriptor rules are translated into ProcMon /Filter CLI arguments and spliced into the capture command line directly.

Local development

# Run the server (stdio — exits on EOF, Ctrl+C to stop interactively).
uv run python -m sysinternals_mcp.server

# Tests — synthetic fixtures, no Sysinternals binaries required, fast.
uv run --group dev pytest tests/ -v

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

The Sysinternals binaries themselves are governed by the Sysinternals license — they are not redistributed by this project.