termdeck
Features
Extensions
Every MCP server, plugin and skill on a machine, in one list per engine, with what each one is, whether it connects, and a switch to turn it off or back on.
Opening it
Open Settings, Extensions. The filters at the top pick the machine, then the engine (shown when the machine has more than one), then, on the MCP servers tab for Claude and Grok, the project. Under them are three tabs, MCP servers, Plugins and Skills, each with a count, and Recheck at the end of that line.
The tab you are on is part of the address, so a refresh or a shared link opens on the same tab: /settings/extensions?tab=plugins. /settings/mcp, /settings/plugins and /settings/skills open Extensions on that tab too.
You can also get there from Open Extensions under Configuration on a machine's page, which opens that machine's list, and from the MCP panel in a chat, through Manage in Extensions.
The machine needs to be online and running a current agent. An offline machine, or one whose agent is too old to answer, says so in place of the list. Agents update themselves, so the second clears on its own.
Reading a row
Each row shows the name, one line of what it is, where it is configured, and its switch. Click the name to open every detail Termdeck has for it: how an MCP server runs, which file defines it, a plugin's version and what it ships, a skill's description and the tools it may use.
Show config, inside an open row, shows the part of the configuration file that defines it. Environment values, headers, tokens and credentials in a URL are replaced with «redacted» on your machine, before anything leaves it.
| Scope | Means |
|---|---|
| User | Configured for you, in every project. |
| Local | Configured for one project, on this machine only. |
| Project | Checked into the project, in .mcp.json or the project's skills folder. |
| Plugin | Comes with a plugin. Its row says Managed by the plugin, and that button takes you to the plugin. |
| Managed | Set by your organisation's managed settings. Termdeck shows it and cannot change it. |
| Another tool | Grok also loads servers and skills from Claude's and other tools' config files. The row says which, for example From Claude config. Turning it off here turns it off for Grok only. |
| claude.ai | A connector on your Claude account, such as Gmail or Google Drive. It shows once the connection check has run, and is turned on and off at claude.ai, not here. |
Connection checks
When the list opens, Termdeck asks the engine on that machine to connect to each MCP server and reports what it got back: Connected, Failed, Needs login, or Waiting for approval for a .mcp.json server nobody has approved yet. A server that was not checked says Not checked and is never painted green. Recheck runs it again.
A check starts each server the way a new chat would, so it can take a minute on a machine with many servers. For Claude it is run for the project you picked, since a server can be off in one project and on in another.
Turning things off and on
Every row you can change has a switch. Off never deletes anything: Termdeck writes one setting in the file the CLI already uses, and turning it back on removes that setting again, leaving the file as it was. Removing or installing an extension is still done with the CLI.
A line under the tabs says where each change applies:
- Applies now when the engine reads it on every turn, as with Claude skills.
- Applies to new chats when a chat already running keeps what it started with. Every Codex and Grok change is like this.
- Also applied to N running chats when a Claude MCP server was switched and chats in that project were running. Termdeck tells those chats too, so you do not have to restart them.
Claude MCP servers and projects
Claude decides MCP servers per project, so the MCP tab has a project filter listing the projects you added to Termdeck. A switch changes the picked project. All projects changes every project in the list at once, and a server that is off in some of them says how many.
A folder you have not added to Termdeck is not in the filter. Add it from the sidebar first.
Grok has the same filter, so you can see and check the servers a project defines. A Grok switch turns a server off for you in every project.
What each engine allows
| Engine | MCP servers | Plugins | Skills |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude | Per project, or all projects | On or off for you | On or off for you |
| Codex | On or off for you | On or off for you | On or off for you |
| Grok | On or off for you | On or off for you | On or off for you |
A server that comes with a plugin is switched with its plugin. A managed server cannot be switched at all. A Claude plugin installed for one project shows whether it is on in that project, and has a switch only when that project is added to Termdeck.
Grok's list needs xAI's Grok CLI, @xai-official/grok. A machine with the community grok-cli package says so in place of the list; see Engines to replace it.
When the switches are locked
- Free. Reading the list and running checks are free. The switches are on Starter and Pro; on Free, a switch opens the upgrade panel and changes nothing. See Plans and limits.
- A read-only machine. Setting
TERMDECK_CONFIG_READONLY=1in the agent's environment makes that machine refuse every change, whoever asks. The list says so at the top. See Agent environment variables.
The machine checks every change itself: only a name and a project you added are sent, and the agent finds the file. It writes only the engine's own settings files and the settings of projects you added, nothing else on disk.