zos-ftp-mcp 0.1.3
MCP server for z/OS mainframe FTP operations
License: MIT
Requires Python: >=3.10
Keywords: mainframe, zos, ftp, mcp, dataset, pds

# z/OS FTP MCP Server

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A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for interacting with z/OS mainframe systems via FTP.

## Features

- List datasets from mainframe catalog with pattern matching
- Download datasets in binary and text formats with encoding conversion
- Download members from partitioned datasets (PDS) with parallel support
- Submit and monitor JCL jobs
- Advanced text processing: encoding conversion, line ending control, trailing spaces handling
- Configurable write protection for safe production use
- Connection management via environment variables

## Installation

### For MCP Server Usage
No installation needed! The MCP configuration with `uvx` will automatically download and run the package.

### For Python Library Usage
```bash
pip install zos-ftp-mcp
```

## Configuration

Set environment variables for connection:

```bash
export ZFTP_HOST="your-mainframe-host"
export ZFTP_PORT="21"
export ZFTP_USER="your-username"
export ZFTP_PASSWORD="your-password"
export ZFTP_TIMEOUT="600.0"
export ZFTP_DOWNLOAD_PATH="/path/to/downloads"
export ZFTP_DEBUG="false"  # Set to "true" for detailed FTP protocol logging
export ZFTP_ALLOW_WRITE="false"  # Set to "true" to enable upload/submit operations
```

### Advanced Text Processing

Control how text files are downloaded from EBCDIC mainframe to ASCII/UTF-8:

```bash
# Character encoding conversion (EBCDIC to ASCII/UTF-8)
export ZFTP_DEFAULT_ENCODING="IBM-037,UTF-8"  # US/Canada EBCDIC to UTF-8
# Other options: IBM-1047,UTF-8 (Latin-1), IBM-285,UTF-8 (UK)

# Line ending format
export ZFTP_DEFAULT_LINE_ENDING="LF"  # Unix/Linux style
# Options: CRLF (Windows), LF (Unix), CR (old Mac), NONE

# Preserve trailing spaces in fixed-length records
export ZFTP_PRESERVE_TRAILING_SPACES="false"  # Strip trailing spaces
# Set to "true" to keep 80-character fixed-length records intact
```

**When to use these settings:**
- **Encoding**: Essential for proper character conversion (JCL, COBOL, logs)
- **Line endings**: Cross-platform compatibility, version control (Git)
- **Trailing spaces**: Keep "false" for most text files, "true" for fixed-format data

### Write Operations

By default, the MCP server is **read-only** for safety. To enable write operations:

```bash
export ZFTP_ALLOW_WRITE="true"
```

When enabled, you can:
- Upload files to mainframe datasets (`upload_dataset`)
- Submit JCL jobs (`submit_job`)

Use with caution in production environments. Read-only operations (list, download, monitor jobs) are always available.

## Usage

### As MCP Server

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zos-ftp-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["zos-ftp-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "ZFTP_HOST": "your-mainframe-host",
        "ZFTP_USER": "your-username",
        "ZFTP_PASSWORD": "your-password",
        "ZFTP_DOWNLOAD_PATH": "/path/to/downloads"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### Direct Command Line
```bash
zos-ftp-mcp
```

## Tools Available

### Dataset Operations
- `list_catalog(pattern, limit, offset)` - List datasets matching pattern with pagination
- `download_binary(source_dataset, target_file)` - Download dataset in binary mode
- `download_text(source_dataset, target_file, encoding, line_ending, preserve_trailing_spaces)` - Download with text processing
- `download_pds_members(dataset, target_dir, members, encoding, line_ending, ...)` - Download PDS members with advanced options
- `upload_dataset(source_file, target_dataset, binary, lrecl, blksize, recfm, space)` - Upload file to dataset (requires ZFTP_ALLOW_WRITE=true)
- `get_vsam_info(dataset, limit, offset)` - Get VSAM dataset information with pagination (requires ZFTP_ALLOW_WRITE=true)
- `get_gdg_info(gdg_base, limit, offset)` - Get GDG base attributes and generations with pagination (requires ZFTP_ALLOW_WRITE=true)

### Job Operations
- `submit_job(jcl, jobname)` - Submit JCL job (requires ZFTP_ALLOW_WRITE=true)
- `list_jes_jobs(jobmask, owner, status, limit, offset)` - List jobs with filtering and pagination
- `get_job_info(jobid)` - Get job details
- `download_job_spool(jobid, target_file)` - Download job output with return code extraction

### Connection Management
- `get_connection_info()` - Show current connection settings

## Sample Usage Prompts

Once configured, you can use these prompts:

### Dataset Discovery
"List all datasets starting with SYS1 to explore system datasets"

"Show me all user datasets matching MYUSER.* pattern"

### Data Download
"Download the dataset MYUSER.COBOL.SOURCE to my local downloads folder with UTF-8 encoding"

"Download all members from the PDS MYUSER.COBOL.COPYLIB to a local directory"

### Data Upload (requires ZFTP_ALLOW_WRITE=true)
"Upload my local file test.jcl to dataset MYUSER.JCL.TEST with lrecl=80 and recfm=FB"

"Upload local file member.cbl to PDS member MYUSER.COBOL.SOURCE(TESTPGM)"

### Job Operations
"Submit this JCL job and wait for completion" (requires ZFTP_ALLOW_WRITE=true)

"List all my jobs that are in OUTPUT status"

"Download the spool output for job JOB12345 and show me the return code"

### Connection Management
"Show me the current FTP connection settings"

## Dependencies

- [mcp](https://pypi.org/project/mcp/) - Model Context Protocol
- Python 3.10+ standard library (ftplib, pathlib, etc.)

## Advanced Features

### Pagination Support

To avoid overwhelming context windows with large result sets, several tools support pagination:

**Tools with pagination:**
- `list_catalog` - Paginate through datasets
- `list_jes_jobs` - Paginate through jobs
- `get_vsam_info` - Paginate through VSAM datasets
- `get_gdg_info` - Paginate through GDG generations

**Usage:**
```python
# Get first 50 datasets
list_catalog('USER.*', limit=50)

# Get next 50 datasets
list_catalog('USER.*', limit=50, offset=50)

# Get first 20 jobs
list_jes_jobs(status='OUTPUT', limit=20)

# Get first 10 GDG generations
get_gdg_info('AWS.M2.CARDDEMO.TRANSACT.BKUP', limit=10)
```

**Response includes:**
- `count` - Number of items returned in this page
- `total` - Total number of items available
- `offset` - Current offset
- `has_more` - True if more items are available

### JESINTERFACELEVEL Limitations

The server automatically detects your mainframe's JES interface level. With **JESINTERFACELEVEL=1** (common in older systems):

**Job Submission:**
- Jobname in JCL must be `userid + exactly one character`
- Example: If userid is `USER123`, jobname must be `USER123J`
- The server validates this automatically and provides clear error messages

**Job Listing:**
- Server-side filtering may not work
- Client-side filtering is applied automatically
- Jobs may be purged quickly from spool

**Workaround:** The server handles these limitations transparently. Just be aware that job retrieval may fail if jobs are purged quickly.

### Parallel PDS Downloads

Download PDS members faster using multiple FTP connections:

```python
# Sequential (default)
download_pds_members(dataset, target_dir, members, ftp_threads=1)

# Parallel (2-16 threads)
download_pds_members(dataset, target_dir, members, ftp_threads=4)
```

Parallel downloads are significantly faster for large PDSs (>10 members).

### Per-Operation Overrides

While defaults are set via environment variables, you can override them per operation:

```python
# Use different line ending for specific file
download_text(dataset, target_file, line_ending='CRLF')

# Preserve trailing spaces for fixed-format data
download_text(dataset, target_file, preserve_trailing_spaces=True)

# Use different encoding
download_pds_members(dataset, target_dir, members, encoding='IBM-1047,UTF-8')
```

## License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.