Shipback SFTP Gives AI Agents Undoable Shared-Hosting Deploys

Summary

Shipback SFTP is an open-source Node.js tool for deploying folders to cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, or plain VPS hosts over SFTP. Before each overwrite or deletion, it saves the server copy in a timestamped backup folder, and its restore command can put those files back while removing files added by the deployment. Restore first checks whether live files changed after the deployment; it stops on conflicts unless the user explicitly passes `--force`, and the forced operation backs up the edited copy first. Restores can themselves be undone. The project includes an MCP server for Claude Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop, and other MCP clients. Its agent-facing tools can preview plans, verify that files have not drifted since preview, deploy, pull live changes, inspect backups, preview or run restores, and view history. The MCP interface deliberately excludes server-wide deletion, backup skipping, and backup pruning. A local queue and web UI provide alternatives for agents that can write files but cannot run commands. The project requires Node 18 or newer, stores passwords in the operating system keychain, and includes cross-platform tests with end-to-end SFTP coverage. The author says the underlying deployment engine has been used 235 times for aldo.today, while restore and MCP support are new in version 0.1. Backups remain on the same hosting account, and files larger than 8 MB with matching sizes may be treated as unchanged when no manifest hash is available.