SWG bar MCP Guide

SWG bar provides native, built-in support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Once connected via stdio, any MCP-compatible AI client—such as Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, or Claude Code—can query your local SWG bar status, inspect observed domains and certificates, and manage domain-level SWG bypass rules on macOS.

Configure your MCP client

Ensure SWG bar is installed in /Applications/SWGBar.app, then add swgbar to your AI client’s MCP configuration.

Standard mcp.json configuration

Add the following entry to your MCP configuration file (for example, claude_desktop_config.json for Claude Desktop, or .cursor/mcp.json for Cursor):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "swgbar": {
      "command": "/Applications/SWGBar.app/Contents/MacOS/swgbar",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

CLI registration (Claude Code)

If you are using Claude Code, register the MCP server with a single terminal command:

claude mcp add swgbar -- /Applications/SWGBar.app/Contents/MacOS/swgbar mcp

Available capabilities

Through the Model Context Protocol, your AI assistant can invoke the same underlying capabilities available in the SWG bar menu bar app:

Area	Available capabilities
Overview	Query overall HTTPS inspection percentage, classification counts (Confirmed, Suspected, Public, Intranet), and top intercepting certificates.
Domains	Search, filter, and paginate observed domains; inspect detailed connection evidence, certificate trust chains, and bypass state for any hostname.
Certificates	List and filter certificate clusters; retrieve issuer details, validity periods, SHA-256 fingerprints, and all associated hostnames.
SWG Bypass	Inspect active bypass rules, or enable, toggle, disable, and clear SWG bypass for specific domains.
On-Demand Probes	Probe any domain in real time to assess TLS certificate chains and verify whether traffic is decrypted.
Browser Companion	Check connection and synchronization status with the Chrome extension companion.
App Preferences	Monitor collector state, pause or resume monitoring, check for software updates, and review license status.

Example prompts

Once connected, you can interact with SWG bar using natural language prompts in your AI client:

• “What is my current HTTPS inspection rate in SWG bar, and which CA certificates are intercepting traffic?”
• “List all domains currently classified as Confirmed inspection and show their certificate details.”
• “Probe and tell me whether its certificate chain is public or decrypted by a corporate gateway.”
• “Enable SWG bypass for and verify the updated bypass status.”
• “Are there any suspected self-signed or enterprise certificates observed in my recent traffic?”

For direct command-line usage in Terminal, see the CLI guide. To learn how SWG bar classifies certificates and evaluates evidence, read how SWG bar works.