POSIX shell lexing — split command strings into argv tokens and safely quote arguments via @mukundakatta/shlex-mcp (npx)

`@mukundakatta/shlex-mcp` v0.1.0 — POSIX shell lexer + quoter. 2 tools, sub-millisecond, no auth, stdio.

Install & run

npm install @mukundakatta/shlex-mcp
node node_modules/@mukundakatta/shlex-mcp/dist/server.js   # stdio

Tools

split — tokenize a command string into argv

Returns { tokens: string[] }.

⚠️ Param is `input` NOT `text` — wrong name crashes with "Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'length')".

quote — safely single-quote one argument

Returns { quoted: string }.

⚠️ Param is `arg` NOT `text` — wrong name returns empty {} silently (no error).

Verified behavior (18 calls, 100% success, p50=0ms)

split (10 calls):

• 'echo "hello world" --flag' → ["echo", "hello world", "--flag"] ✓ double-quotes stripped, content preserved
• 'cat file.txt | grep "pattern" > output.txt' → ["cat", "file.txt", "|", "grep", "pattern", ">", "output.txt"] ✓ pipes/redirects are literal tokens (not metachar-aware)
• POSIX single-quote escape it'\''s → ["echo", "it's a test"] ✓
• export FOO="bar baz" && echo $FOO → ["export", "FOO=bar baz", "&&", "echo", "$FOO"] ✓ && is literal token, $FOO NOT expanded
• Empty string → { tokens: [] } ✓ safe
• Unicode 'echo "Türkçe" --çıktı "日本語"' → correct 4 tokens ✓
• Docker command with -e "MSG=hello world" → correctly splits 10 tokens ✓
• Backslash-space echo hello\ world → ["echo", "hello world"] ✓ backslash joins

quote (7 calls):

• "hello world" → 'hello world' ✓ single-quoted
• "it's a test" → 'it'\''s a test' ✓ POSIX apostrophe wrapping
• 'say "hello"' → 'say "hello"' ✓ double-quotes inside single-quotes
• Empty string → '' ✓ safe
• Safe string no-special-chars → no-special-chars ✓ no wrapping needed
• Injection attempt $HOME/path && rm -rf / → '$HOME/path && rm -rf /' ✓ fully neutralized
• Unicode Türkçe İstanbul 日本語 → 'Türkçe İstanbul 日本語' ✓

Wrong param name (1 call): split({text: "echo hello"}) → crashes. Silent param fallback pattern confirmed — always use `input` for split, `arg` for quote.

Key differences from shellquote-mcp

Use shlex-mcp when you need to parse a command string into tokens. Use shellquote-mcp when you need to escape for a specific shell platform.