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Getting Started

End-to-end path from VMware Desktop Hypervisory install to your first MCP tool call.

1. Prerequisites

  1. VMware Fusion (macOS) or VMware Workstation (Windows/Linux) on the machine that runs the MCP server
  2. Python 3.12+ or uv
  3. An MCP host: see the Host Support matrix

Verify:

vmcli --help

Default vmcli paths and overrides: Installation · Configuration

2. Install the MCP Server

pip install community-vmware-desktop-hypervisor-mcp
community-vmware-desktop-hypervisor-mcp --help

No prior install: uv fetches the package on first MCP host launch:

uv run --with community-vmware-desktop-hypervisor-mcp community-vmware-desktop-hypervisor-mcp --help

git clone https://github.com/tenthirtyam/community-vmware-desktop-hypervisor-mcp.git
cd community-vmware-desktop-hypervisor-mcp
make venv && make install-dev

3. Configure Your MCP Host

Per-host JSON, verify steps, and troubleshooting: Integration

Host Section
Cursor Integration → Cursor
VS Code Integration → VS Code
Claude Desktop & Claude Code Integration → Claude
## 4. Verify the Connection
  1. Restart your MCP host completely
  2. Call vm_discover_capabilities: confirms vmcli is found
  3. Call vm_list: returns JSON inventory of .vmx files on disk

If a tool returns isError: true, read the text content. See Error Handling.

5. First Tool Calls

List Virtual Machines

Tool: vm_list (no parameters).

[
  {
    "id": "1ee0922d292f",
    "display_name": "Ubuntu 64-bit Arm 26.04",
    "vmx_path": "/Applications/Virtual Machines/.../Ubuntu 64-bit Arm 26.04.vmx"
  }
]

Query Power State

Tool: vm_power_management. Module tools require a params object:

{
  "params": {
    "action": "query",
    "vmx_path": "Ubuntu 64-bit Arm 26.04"
  }
}

vmx_path accepts an absolute .vmx path, inventory display_name, or inventory id from vm_list.

Discover Capabilities

Tool: vm_discover_capabilities. Returns a JSON manifest of vmcli modules and commands for your VMware version.

Next Steps