textual-mcp-server

Provides an MCP server that enables AI agents to run Textual (Python TUI) applications headlessly and interact with them via MCP tools: lifecycle management (launch/stop), UI interaction (click/hover/type/press), state inspection (snapshots, widget queries/properties, screen stack), waiting, error checking, and screenshot capture.

Evaluated Apr 04, 2026 (20d ago)

Homepage ↗ Repo ↗ DevTools mcp textual tui automation testing headless agent-interfaces ui-inspection

⚙ Agent Friendliness

/ 100

Can an agent use this?

🔒 Security

/ 100

Is it safe for agents?

⚡ Reliability

/ 100

Does it work consistently?

Score Breakdown

⚙ Agent Friendliness

MCP Quality

Documentation

Error Messages

Auth Simplicity

Rate Limits

🔒 Security

TLS Enforcement

Auth Strength

Scope Granularity

Dep. Hygiene

Secret Handling

No authentication/authorization model is described for the MCP server; this is a local-process oriented tool but could be exposed if misconfigured. No transport/TLS details are provided. Dependency info and vulnerability posture are not provided in the supplied content. Since it can execute/launch arbitrary local Textual apps (via file/module paths), there is an inherent risk of code execution if an untrusted agent can call launch with attacker-controlled targets.

⚡ Reliability

Uptime/SLA

Version Stability

Breaking Changes

Error Recovery

Best When

You control the Textual app codebase and execution environment, and you want an agent to drive and inspect a TUI deterministically in a local/headless setting.

Avoid When

You need fine-grained authorization, remote multi-tenant safety, or strong contractual guarantees about availability and backward compatibility.

Use Cases

• Automated testing of Textual TUI apps using LLM-driven interaction
• Agentic UI inspection/debugging of Textual apps (widget tree/state/screen stack)
• Regression testing for interactive CLI/TUI flows (forms, tables, navigation)
• Headless demos or verification workflows for Textual interfaces

Not For

• Production-grade secure multi-tenant automation without additional hardening
• Use cases requiring a managed cloud API with strong uptime/SLA guarantees
• Browser/web UI automation (this is for Textual TUIs, not HTML/CSS pages)

Interface

REST API

GraphQL

gRPC

MCP Server

Yes

SDK

Webhooks

Authentication

Methods: No explicit authentication described (assumes local/process-based MCP usage)

OAuth: No Scopes: No

README does not describe any auth mechanism for the MCP server (no API keys/OAuth/scopes mentioned).

Pricing

Free tier: No

Requires CC: No

Open-source project (MIT). No hosted pricing described.

Agent Metadata

Pagination

none

Idempotent

False

Retry Guidance

Not documented

Known Gotchas

⚠ UI operations are stateful: using click/type without first snapshot/waiting may fail if widgets are not yet present.
⚠ CSS selectors must match the widget tree; selector mismatches will likely yield empty results/errors.
⚠ Multi-session support exists conceptually; agents should keep track of session_id to avoid cross-session confusion.

Alternatives

Direct use of Textual Pilot/testing APIs (without MCP) Selenium/Playwright-style automation equivalents for TUIs (if available) or custom harnesses Other MCP servers targeting UI frameworks (if present) or generic browser automation MCP servers

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Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-04-04.