allow-start-process
Allow process creation
LABSCO SUMMARY
Permission here is a stored decision rather than a prompt — the allowlist has its own tools and is scoped to a directory.
allow-start-process registers a script with its args and cwd, and list-allowed-processes-in-cwd reads that back per directory, so what an agent may launch is inspectable instead of implicit. The limit is stated plainly: start-process warns against invoking background processes that will not exit on their own, and says stdout and stderr will not be captured in that case. For processes that do behave, get-process-stdout and get-process-stderr read output back a chunk at a time rather than all at once.
What it is
A process manager with 11 tools: an allowlist of permitted script and argument combinations per working directory, and the start, restart, delete, inspect and output-reading tools for what runs from it.
What you get
- The allowlist as explicit tools: allow-start-process registers a script, its args and a cwd as permitted, list-allowed-processes-in-cwd shows what is permitted in a directory, and delete-allowed-process removes an entry.
- Process control: start-process with a name, script, args, cwd and envs, then restart-process and delete-process by id.
- Inspection: list-processes for everything running, and get-process-info for one process by id.
- Output read back in chunks: get-process-stdout and get-process-stderr, each taking a chunkCount.
- get-server-id for the server's own identifier.
Requirements
A machine the server can run processes on, and an allowlist entry for each script and argument combination before it can be started.
Setup effort
One command — npx -y procm-mcp
USE CASES
01
Letting an agent run your dev server without letting it run anything else
The script, its arguments and its directory are registered once; anything outside that combination is not startable.
02
Reading why something you started is failing
Standard output and standard error come back a chunk at a time, so a noisy process does not arrive as one wall of text.
03
Restarting a service after changing its configuration
Restart works from the process id, so the same entry comes back rather than a second copy alongside the first.
04
Clearing up what was left running
Listing first and deleting by id keeps the cleanup deliberate, and the server id identifies which instance you are talking to.
11 tools
Counted once with only startup setup. Other versions, modes or optional credentials may expose a different list.
delete-allowed-process
Delete an allowed process
delete-process
Delete a process by ID
get-process-info
Get information about a process by ID
get-process-stderr
Get the stderr of a process by ID
get-process-stdout
Get the stdout of a process by ID
get-server-id
Get server id
list-allowed-processes-in-cwd
List allowed processes in current working directory
list-processes
List all running processes
restart-process
Restart a process by ID
start-process
Start a new process. Warning: Do not invoke background processes that will not exit automatically, and stdout/stderr will not be captured.
BEFORE YOU INSTALL
What to know first
Tools you get
11 tools when we connected.
Requires
npx on PATH
CONTEXT COST
Light Standing cost
Rated by the size of the 11 tool definitions that ride along on every turn, not by how many there are
INSTALLATION
Connect your client
Add the block to your client, or run the command directly.
Server setup
Configuration file
JSON
{
"mcpServers": {
"procm-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"procm-mcp"
]
}
}
}npx
TERMINAL
npx -y procm-mcp
