Thinr — ThinRemote CLI

A command-line tool for managing remote IoT devices on the ThinRemote platform, and an MCP server that lets AI assistants drive those devices programmatically.

Two operating modes:

• CLI — interactive or scripted device management from a shell.
• MCP server — a stdio Model Context Protocol server that exposes the same operations as typed tools for AI clients like Claude Code.

Both modes share the same auth, profiles, and device API layer, so you configure the tool once and use it in whichever mode fits the task at hand.

Table of contents

• Installation
• Initial setup
• Global options and environment variables
• Part 1 — CLI
  • JSON output
  • thinr device <action> [<deviceId>]
  • thinr product <action> <productId>
  • thinr profile
  • thinr logout
• Part 2 — MCP server
  • Starting the server
  • Tool catalog
  • Per-call controls
  • Integrating with Claude Code
• Profiles and multi-account use
• Development
• License

Installation

From NPM (recommended)

npm install -g @thinremote/thinr-cli

From source

git clone https://github.com/Thin-Remote/thinr-cli.git
cd thinr-cli
npm install
npm link

Requires Node.js ≥ 18.

Initial setup

Run the CLI once with no arguments to authenticate:

thinr

You'll be prompted for the ThinRemote server, and can authenticate with either username/password (OAuth 2.0 device flow) or a pre-issued token. On success a profile is created at ~/.config/thinr-cli/config.json, named after the server hostname, and marked as the default.

Every later command reads that profile automatically. Logging into a second server creates a second profile side-by-side; see Profiles and multi-account use.

Global options and environment variables

These apply to every subcommand:

Flag	Env var	Meaning
--profile <name>	THINR_PROFILE	Use a non-default profile for this invocation.
-u, --user <name>	—	Admin impersonation: act on behalf of another user (requires admin privileges on the server).
—	THINR_INSECURE=1	Accept self-signed TLS certificates globally. Localhost / 127.0.0.1 are always accepted; this flag extends the relaxation to any host, useful for LAN dev servers.

---

Part 1 — CLI

All device- and product-scoped actions follow a subcommand-first shape: the action comes before the target id, matching patterns like kubectl describe pod <name> or git remote add <name> <url>.

thinr device <action>  <deviceId>  [args…] [options]
thinr product <action> <productId> [args…] [options]

JSON output

Every data-producing command accepts -j, --json and writes a single envelope to stdout so scripts can pipe it to jq:

{ "ok": true, "data": <payload> }
{ "ok": false, "error": { "message": "...", "code": "<code>" } }

Process exit codes always reflect success (0) or failure (non-zero), independently of the envelope.

Emitted error code values:

code	meaning
not_configured	CLI has no saved profile — run thinr to set up.
not_found	Device, property, resource or profile not found.
unauthorized	Token expired or insufficient permissions.
server_error	Non-success HTTP response from the server.
network_error	No response from the server.
input_error	Bad or missing CLI argument.
timeout	Command timed out on the device (exec).
cancelled	User interrupted with Ctrl+C (exec).
error	Fallback for anything uncategorised.

Spinners and progress messages are suppressed in JSON mode so the output is valid JSON without wrappers. Interactive commands (console, tcp/tls/http) accept --json silently but don't change their behaviour — they don't produce a discrete result. exec buffers stdout/stderr when --json is set and emits a single envelope on exit.

thinr device <action> [<deviceId>]

Most actions take a <deviceId> as their first positional. The list action is the exception — it operates on the fleet, with an optional <pattern> to filter results.

list

List every device visible to the active profile, or filter with a case-insensitive regex (matched against device id and name on the server side):

thinr device list                    # every device
thinr device list supermicro         # only ids/names containing "supermicro"
thinr device list "^revpi|jetson"    # regex alternation works too
thinr device list --json             # JSON envelope with the raw API records

Combine with the global -u, --user flag for admin impersonation.

console

Open an interactive terminal on the device:

thinr device console <deviceId>

Proxies — tcp / tls / http

Create a TCP, TLS, or HTTP proxy to a remote endpoint reachable from the device:

thinr device tcp  <deviceId> [target] [options]
thinr device tls  <deviceId> [target] [options]
thinr device http <deviceId> [target] [options]

target is the remote address and port on the device side. Defaults when omitted: tcp → 22, tls → 443, http → 80, against localhost.

Options:

• -p, --port <port>: Local port to bind (default: random in 50000–51000)
• --no-open: Do not open the browser automatically (http only)

Examples:

# TCP proxy to SSH
thinr device tcp RevPi20679 22

# HTTP proxy to a specific port
thinr device http RevPi20679 8080

# HTTP proxy to a specific address behind the device
thinr device http RevPi20679 http://192.168.1.45:8080

status

thinr device status <deviceId> [-j, --json]

Returns the device's connection stats (uptime, tx/rx, last-seen).

property

List every property of a device, or read one by id:

thinr device property <deviceId>                                # list
thinr device property <deviceId> <propertyId> [options]         # read

Options:

• -j, --json: Output as JSON
• -f, --field <path>: Extract a sub-field via dot path (-f data.value)

resource

List the resources exposed by the device (with their in/out schemas when advertised), or call one:

thinr device resource <deviceId>                                # list
thinr device resource <deviceId> <resourceId> [options]         # call

Options:

• -i, --input <key=value>: Resource input (repeatable)
• -j, --json: Output as JSON
• -f, --field <path>: Extract a sub-field from the result (dot path)

exec

Run a shell command on the device and stream stdout/stderr back:

thinr device exec <deviceId> "<command>" [options]

Options:

• -j, --json: Buffer output and emit a single envelope {stdout, stderr, exitCode} on exit
• --legacy: Use the non-streaming one-shot API (older agents)

The process exits with the remote command's exit code.

update

Check for or apply an agent update on the device:

thinr device update check <deviceId> [options]
thinr device update apply <deviceId> [options]

Options:

• --channel <name>: Update channel (default: latest)
• -j, --json: Output as JSON

thinr product <action> <productId>

Fan out an operation across every device that belongs to a product.

property

thinr product property <productId> <propertyId> [options]

Options:

• -j, --json: Output as JSON. Emits one envelope with a results[] array, one entry per device, each with its own ok flag.
• -f, --field <path>: Extract a sub-field from each property (dot path)
• -a, --all: Include offline devices (default: only active)
• -g, --group <group>: Filter devices by asset group

resource

thinr product resource <productId> <resource> [options]

Options:

• -j, --json: Output as JSON (results[] array, same shape as above)
• -f, --field <path>: Extract a sub-field from each result (dot path)
• -g, --group <group>: Filter devices by asset group
• -i, --input <key=value>: Resource input (repeatable)

Offline devices are skipped for resource — the server would reject the call anyway.

thinr profile

Manage the profile store (see Profiles and multi-account use):

thinr profile list          [--json]
thinr profile current       [--json]
thinr profile use    <name> [--json]
thinr profile delete <name> [--json]

thinr logout

Remove the active profile's credentials and config:

thinr logout

Other profiles are left untouched.

---

Part 2 — MCP server

thinr ships an MCP server that exposes the CLI's device operations as a set of typed tools. AI clients (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and any other MCP-compatible host) can then list devices, run shell commands, read/write files, call resources, and manage products through the same API the CLI uses — with stable schemas and a consistent error contract.

Starting the server

thinr mcp [-d, --device <deviceId>]

The server speaks MCP over stdio. -d/--device sets a default device that tools can omit in each call; --user can be passed through (via the global flag) to impersonate another account.

Tool catalog

Roughly 28 tools, grouped by capability. Every tool accepts optional device, user, and profile arguments, so a single session can target any device/account/environment without restart.

Area	Tools
Discovery	thinr_devices (with optional query for regex filtering), thinr_device_info, thinr_profiles
Shell	thinr_exec (buffered), with streaming stdout/stderr
Filesystem	thinr_read, thinr_write, thinr_ls, thinr_mkdir, thinr_delete, thinr_move
Resources	thinr_resource_list (with in/out schemas), thinr_resource_call
Properties	thinr_property_get, thinr_property_set
Scripts (device)	thinr_script_list, thinr_script_write, thinr_script_delete
Monitoring and update	thinr_monitoring, thinr_update
Products	thinr_products, thinr_product_delete, thinr_device_set_product
Product scripts	thinr_product_script_list, thinr_product_script_read, thinr_product_script_write, thinr_product_script_delete

Full input/output schemas are published via standard MCP list_tools; the client will show them when you connect.

Per-call controls

The server starts with no per-session pin: every tool call must say which device it's for, and may optionally override the account or profile for that single call.

• device — required for any device-scoped tool. Use thinr_devices (optionally with query to filter by regex) to discover ids.
• user — optional admin impersonation; falls back to the authenticated user of the active profile.
• profile — optional. Switches the active profile for that single tool call so an agent can hop between prod and staging without restarting the server. List the configured profiles with thinr_profiles.

Integrating with Claude Code

Register the server once with the Claude Code CLI:

claude mcp add thinr -s user -- thinr mcp

That's it — a single MCP server entry handles every device of the active profile. Tool calls pass device (and optionally user / profile) per call.

Other MCP hosts follow the same pattern — they just need the command thinr mcp (optionally with -d <deviceId>) over stdio.

---

Profiles and multi-account use

~/.config/thinr-cli/config.json stores any number of profiles:

{
    "default": "perf.aws.thinger.io",
    "profiles": {
        "perf.aws.thinger.io": { "server": "...", "username": "...", "token": "..." },
        "staging.local": { "server": "...", "username": "...", "token": "..." }
    }
}

The active profile is picked, in order:

1. --profile <name> flag on the command line.
2. THINR_PROFILE environment variable.
3. The default field in the config file.
4. The sole profile, if there's only one.

Logging in to a new server creates a new profile whose name is the server hostname (so it never clobbers an existing one). Legacy single-profile files from older versions of the CLI are detected on read and migrated in-memory without a manual step.

Use thinr profile use <name> to change the persisted default, or --profile <name> / THINR_PROFILE=<name> for one-off runs.

Development

thinr-cli/
├── bin/           # CLI entry point (thinr)
├── commands/      # Commander subcommand modules
├── lib/           # Core: api, auth, config, device-api, errors,
│                  # output, mcp-server, proxy, console, …
├── package.json
└── README.md

Local development:

npm install
npm link            # makes `thinr` available on $PATH
node bin/thinr.js   # or run directly without linking

There are no automated tests yet — contributions welcome.

License

Released under the MIT License.

Copyright © Thinger.io

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.