Smyth Docker Commander FAQs

Question 1

How does Smyth Docker Commander facilitate AI-human collaboration?

Accepted Answer

It allows both AI clients (like Claude Code or Gemini CLI) and human users to simultaneously interact with the same container terminal. They can send commands, keystrokes, and special sequences while sharing and seeing the same real-time terminal output, enabling 'pair programming' scenarios.

Question 2

What are the prerequisites to run Smyth Docker Commander?

Accepted Answer

To get started, you need Node.js v20+, Docker Desktop/Engine running and accessible on your system, and an API key for an LLM provider (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic) configured in your Smyth Vault.

Question 3

What are the core capabilities of this tool?

Accepted Answer

Key capabilities include a full TTY interface for input/output, real-time capture and buffering of terminal output, comprehensive container lifecycle management (spawn, send input, get output, stop, destroy), and an interactive status line UI for monitoring.

Question 4

How do AI clients interact with the Docker containers?

Accepted Answer

AI clients connect to the MCP server via Server-Sent Events (SSE) and call a set of exposed skills. These include `SpawnContainer` to start a new sandbox, `SendTTYInput` to send commands, `GetScreenContent` to read output, and `StopAndDestroyContainer` to manage the container lifecycle.

Question 5

What is Smyth Docker Commander?

Accepted Answer

Smyth Docker Commander is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that spawns ephemeral Linux sandbox containers using Docker. It provides a full interactive TTY interface for executing commands and enables real-time collaboration between AI clients and human users.

Smyth Docker Commander

Smyth Docker Commander

Key Features

Use Cases

Key Features

Use Cases