runZero MCP

runZero + AI - for Claude, the ChatGPT desktop app, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, and any agent that speaks MCP

Unofficial. Community-built Claude Code Skill and MCP server for the runZero API. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by runZero, Inc..

[runZero demo - animated preview]

_{▶ Watch the 30-second demo - demo data is simulated; every command shown exists in the real CLI.}

Every runZero query, plus a local SQLite copy of your whole attack surface that diffs over time, joins assets to vulnerabilities offline, and costs zero API quota to re-slice. Works with the AI you already use - ChatGPT (desktop app), Claude Desktop, Codex, Claude Code, Claude Cowork, and GitHub Copilot - plus Gemini CLI. Free, open source, runs on your laptop. Built for MSP owners. No code required.

Works with your agent

The six agents MSP owners actually use (self-serve, works today):

The ChatGPT desktop app runs runzero-mcp locally and shares MCP configuration with Codex (OpenAI). ChatGPT on the web needs a remote (HTTP) server, which msp-skills does not support yet. If your team works there, a hosted gateway is the better pick; check that your AI app is on the gateway's setup list.

Also for the Microsoft and Google stacks

Big install base, but an honest heads-up: Gemini CLI runs the local binary you just installed, while Microsoft 365 Copilot and the Gemini app need a remote server, which msp-skills does not support yet.

Skill-native agents (also covered): Hermes and OpenClaw read this skill's SKILL.md directly and speak MCP - see their install sections below. Also works with Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Continue.dev, and Zed via MCP. Full per-tool wire-up: docs/which-agent.md.

Run more than one agent? Install across all 51+ supported agents in one command: npx skills add Servosity/msp-skills@latest (requires Node.js, then run the per-skill installer for the CLI/MCP binaries). See docs/which-agent.md.

Install in 60 seconds

Fastest for Claude Desktop - one-click .mcpb

Claude Desktop bundle: the .mcpb launches on macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), Windows x64 and Linux x64. Every tool shells out to the companion runzero-cli. Releases cut from 2026-09-18 on ship that CLI inside the bundle; older bundles contain only the MCP server, so if yours lacks the companion, run the Path A or Path B installer below first (or set RUNZERO_CLI_PATH to an existing binary). Details: #331.

Download runZero MCP (.mcpb) - then open Claude Desktop > Settings > Extensions and select the file. One click, no JSON, no shell. (Browse every runZero release on the releases page.)

Prefer the Claude Code plugin? Add the marketplace once, then install - works immediately, no directory listing required:

/plugin marketplace add Servosity/msp-skills/plugin install runzero@msp-skills

Path A - paste one prompt into your AI agent (recommended)

Copy this into Claude Code, Codex CLI, or Claude Cowork:

Install the runZero Skill and MCP server from Servosity/msp-skills in this agent workspace. If this workspace uses a POSIX shell (macOS, Linux, WSL, or Bash), run bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/runzero/install.sh). If it uses Windows PowerShell, run iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/runzero/install.ps1 | iex. Then authenticate per the README and run runzero-cli --help to explore.

The same prompt works in any agent that can run shell.

Path B - run the installer yourself

Windows (PowerShell):

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/runzero/install.ps1 | iex

macOS / Linux:

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/runzero/install.sh)

The installer drops both runzero-cli (the CLI) and runzero-mcp (the MCP server) into your user bin path. Claude Code, Codex, and Cowork discover the Skill via SKILL.md in this directory.

Verify:

runzero-cli --version

Upgrade to the latest version

The installer always fetches the current release - re-run it to upgrade:

macOS / Linux:

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/runzero/install.sh)

Windows (PowerShell):

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/runzero/install.ps1 | iex

Claude Desktop .mcpb users: download the latest .mcpb (top of this section) and re-select it in Settings > Extensions. Claude Code plugin users: /plugin update runzero@msp-skills.

Add to Claude Desktop, the ChatGPT desktop app, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, or another MCP client

After the installer runs, see mcp-install.md and docs/which-agent.md for the per-agent wire-up - one section per agent, including the GitHub Copilot servers key and the ChatGPT desktop app. Claude Desktop's Settings > Extensions panel is the simplest path; the MCP config block (for users who prefer editing JSON) is documented in mcp-install.md.

Install for Hermes

From the Hermes CLI:

hermes skills install servosity/msp-skills/skills/runzero --force

Inside a Hermes chat session:

/skills install servosity/msp-skills/skills/runzero --force

Hermes speaks MCP natively, so it can also use the runzero-mcp server directly - same install path, same env vars.

Install for OpenClaw

Tell your OpenClaw agent (copy this):

Install the runzero skill from https://github.com/servosity/msp-skills/tree/main/skills/runzero. The skill defines how its required CLI (runzero-cli) can be installed via the openclaw: frontmatter block.

OpenClaw isn't generally available yet; the frontmatter wiring is pre-shipped and will activate the moment OpenClaw launches.

Authenticate

Set the credentials the CLI needs (from your runZero portal):

RUNZERO_API_KEY=<value> runzero-cli doctor

doctor confirms the credentials work before you run anything that touches data. It exits 0 even when the credential is rejected, so scripts should add --fail-on error.

What this skill does

Everything above the line reads the local SQLite copy - run runzero-cli inventory sync once first, twice if you want diff and exposure-delta to have two snapshots to compare.

Full command reference: guide.md. For the AI-agent operating contract (--agent, --dry-run, when to confirm before mutating), see AGENTS.md.

What makes this different

Most runZero integrations and MCP servers proxy each question into a live API call. That's fine for one record. It dies at scale, when you're asking "which critical assets are running a vulnerable service" - because runZero's API is scoped per entity (/org, /account, /export), so that one question is three calls and a manual join.

This skill syncs runZero into a local SQLite mirror with full-text search. Aggregate questions become one local SQL join: instant, offline, and the AI sees the answer, not the raw data. Compound commands like triage, affected, and exposure-delta join across assets, services, and vulnerabilities in a single pass - work a stateless API wrapper can't do. And because every inventory sync is a snapshot, diff and exposure-delta compare two points in time, which a live wrapper cannot do at all.

The pain this closes

"You can't secure what you can't see" is a refrain on r/msp for a reason: asset inventory drifts, shadow IT shows up unannounced, and the questions that matter are never about one asset. They're cross-entity - which critical machines run this vulnerable service, what newly opened a port since last week, which hosts a fresh CVE actually lands on. runZero discovers all of it, but its API hands you one entity at a time, so the answer lives in a spreadsheet where three exports get joined by hand.

This skill closes that gap by syncing the whole surface locally and answering the cross-entity question directly:

• Rank what's exposed - runzero-cli triage --agent joins criticality, services, and vulnerabilities in one pass.
• See what changed - runzero-cli diff --since 7d and runzero-cli exposure-delta --agent show drift and newly-exposed services between syncs.
• Trace a CVE's blast radius - runzero-cli affected "CVE-2024-3094" --agent lists every affected asset with its services and criticality.
• Clean up the hygiene tail - runzero-cli stale --days 90 --json buckets unseen, EOL, and unowned assets, emitting IDs ready to pipe into the bulk commands.

See pain-point.md for the longer narrative.

Credential safety

• The API key (RUNZERO_API_KEY) goes only as Authorization: Bearer <key> to the configured base URL (https://console.runzero.com/api/v1.0, or your console through RUNZERO_BASE_URL), only over https, and never across a redirect to another host.
• Save the key with auth set-token, which reads it from standard input so it never sits in your shell history: printf '%s' "$KEY" | runzero-cli auth set-token (PowerShell: $env:KEY | runzero-cli auth set-token). Only credentials.toml (mode 0600) holds it.
• A credential a runZero response carries (an API key's token from account get-keys, an organization's export and download tokens, a minted access token, a client secret) prints as [credential withheld], and the rest of the record prints. Any other output, file or MCP result that would repeat the key or one of those credentials, in any encoding, is replaced whole by [credkit: withheld from <sink>: it carried a credential this program holds]. Responses are never cached on disk.
• Over MCP, every tool that changes runZero data, the token mint account get-apitoken included, returns a preview and sends only with confirm: true.
• inventory sync with a failed export, and every analysis command or inventory list over an incomplete local copy (an entity never synced, whose last sync failed or did not finish, or synced under another --search filter), prints its result and exits 6. Add --allow-partial-failure to get exit 0 with a warning.

Frequently asked questions

Does this work with ChatGPT?

Yes, in the ChatGPT desktop app. It runs MCP servers locally (STDIO), the way runzero-mcp runs, and shares MCP configuration with Codex (OpenAI): add runzero-mcp under Settings > MCP servers as a STDIO server, or add it once to Codex's ~/.codex/config.toml. ChatGPT on the web is not supported by msp-skills yet: it needs a remote (HTTP) server. If your team works there, a hosted gateway is the better pick; check that your AI app is on the gateway's setup list.

Does this work with Codex, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Copilot, or Gemini?

Yes - all of them speak MCP. Cross-tool install commands are in the matrix above and the deep-dive in docs/which-agent.md.

Do I need to know how to code?

No. The recommended install is to paste one sentence into Claude Code or Codex - your agent reads SKILL.md and does the install. The fallback is a one-line installer per OS (bash or PowerShell). Neither path requires writing code. You'll enter your runZero credentials once.

Is my runZero data safe?

Your data stays on your machine. The CLI and MCP server are local binaries, and the MCP server runs over stdio unless you deliberately start it in HTTP mode (runzero-mcp --transport http): that mode refuses to start until RUNZERO_MCP_HTTP_TOKEN is set (32 or more characters), every request must send it as Authorization: Bearer <token>, and any address other than loopback also needs --tls-cert and --tls-key. The SQLite mirror sits in a directory under your user account. The AI agent only sees what the CLI returns - typically a query result, not raw bulk data. Credentials are read from your environment or your agent's config; never bundled into this repo or transmitted anywhere by MSP Skills.

Does this burn my runZero API quota?

Only inventory sync and live queries call the API. The cross-entity analysis - triage, diff, affected, exposure-map, exposure-delta, certs-expiring, software rollup - runs entirely against the local SQLite copy, so re-slicing your attack surface a hundred ways costs zero additional API calls.

Does it work with self-hosted runZero?

Yes. It defaults to the hosted console at console.runzero.com; point it at your own console with RUNZERO_BASE_URL. The same API-token scopes apply.

What token scope do I need?

A read/Export token (Export ET, Organization OT, or Account CT key) covers inventory sync and every analysis command. Launching a scan with scan-watch or org create-scan needs a token with scan permission. Scope the credential to only what your workflow uses.

Will this replace the runZero console?

No. The console and API stay the source of truth for discovery. This skill adds the offline cross-entity layer the API can't return in one call - point-in-time diffs, CVE-to-asset blast radius, and exposure ranking - so your AI answers a security question in one step.

What does it cost?

Free. Apache-2.0 licensed. You pay only for whichever AI agent you use (Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, etc.), and that's billed by your AI provider, not by us.

Safety model

The strongest control is the scope you grant the runZero credentials - the CLI can only do what the credentials are permitted to do. Full details, including how to lock it down, are in governance.md.

Status

Beta. Validated against the runZero API surface and being validated with MSPs running it live against their own production tenant in our weekly Build Sessions. RSVP at compoundingteams.com/build-sessions.

Standards. Conforms to the open Agent Skills spec (Anthropic, Dec 2025; 40+ agents). MCP-compatible - works with any MCP-capable agent including Hermes. OpenClaw-ready (frontmatter pre-wired, awaiting OpenClaw launch).

Maintained by Servosity. Apache-2.0 licensed. Built with CLI Printing Press. Last updated: 2026-06-06.