onda-mcp-usage

onda-mcp-usage is a skill for Claude Code from mindfullabai/onda-mcp. It costs 138 tokens per session (4,872 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A usage guide for controlling Onda, a terminal emulator, through its MCP server. It explains how to manage workspaces, windows, panes, terminals, terminal output, and layouts.

In plain words
What is it for?
For opening and managing terminal sessions, sending input, reading buffers, waiting for results, and inspecting the terminal layout.
Why use it?
It helps an agent use Onda's terminal controls correctly, including how to read output and arrange multiple terminals.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: SessionStart hook event. Also seen: mentions Claude Code.

Good fit For opening and managing terminal sessions, sending input, reading buffers, waiting for results, and inspecting the terminal layout.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/mindfullabai/onda-mcp/onda-mcp-usage
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add mindfullabai/onda-mcp --skill onda-mcp-usage
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mindfullabai/onda-mcp

Made for: Claude Code.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for onda-mcp-usage

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/mindfullabai/onda-mcp/onda-mcp-usage/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/mindfullabai/onda-mcp/onda-mcp-usage)
Your own site
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Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

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Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/mindfullabai/onda-mcp/onda-mcp-usage"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/mindfullabai/onda-mcp/onda-mcp-usage.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 138 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 4,872 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00138 $0.04872
Opus 5 $0.00069 $0.02436
Sonnet 5 $0.00028 $0.00974
Haiku 4.5 $0.00014 $0.00487

Measured 11d ago against content hash d7e62ffd30e9, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

onda-mcp-usage scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 11d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/onda-mcp-usage/SKILL.md · 372 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 372 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Onda MCP usage skill

This skill tells you how to correctly use the mcp__onda__* tools exposed by the onda-mcp server (~40 tools as of 0.3.1). It is installed alongside the MCP server. Without this guide you miss non-obvious patterns (subscribe vs read, direction semantics, multi-window orchestration, inception loop).

Compatibility note

Some bug fixes shipped in @mindfullabai/[email protected] + Onda 1.9.1+:

  • terminal_read now returns the full buffer even on first call (eager tap attach at PTY spawn). Pre-0.3.1 a fresh terminal returned an empty buffer until subscribe was active.
  • workspace_add_terminal now respects direction='down' (was silently rewritten to 'row' whenever the anchor was already in a row split).
  • window_mount_workspace now actually splices the workspace into the tiled mosaic (pre-fix the registry was updated but the UI tab/tile never appeared). Accepts direction ('down'|'right', default 'down') and anchorWorkspaceId mirroring the Cmd+P picker.

If you are talking to an older host, fall back to the legacy patterns: subscribe before run, avoid direction='down' on add_terminal, click-mount via the user.

Mental model

You (Claude Code) run inside a terminal inside Onda. The onda-mcp server talks to the Onda host app via JSON-RPC over UDS at ~/.config/onda/onda.sock. Inception loop: every action through mcp__onda__* mutates the app you're running inside. Treat pane/workspace state as shared mutable with the user — do not assume it stays the same.

Onda has three layout primitives:

  • Window: Electron BrowserWindow. N workspaces can coexist in one Window in tiled mode.
  • Workspace: root folder + collection of panes. Mounted into a Window.
  • Pane: container with contentType: terminal | editor | diff. Terminals have a stable terminalId (survives split/merge).

Internal workspace layout = mosaic-component tree. Read it via onda_workspace_layout.

When to use what — cheat sheet

Goal Tool
"Which workspaces exist" onda_workspace_list
"Which Windows are open" onda_window_list
"How is workspace X laid out" onda_workspace_layout
"I want to see what the user sees" onda_window_screenshot
"Open a new terminal right/below pane X" onda_workspace_add_terminal with direction + relativeToPaneId
"Mount workspace W in window X as a new tile" onda_window_mount_workspace with windowId + direction ('down' or 'right')
"Move workspace W from one window to another" onda_window_mount_workspace with target windowId (atomic transfer, returns transferred: true)
"Drop workspace from its window without deleting it" onda_workspace_unmount (registry slot released, PTYs survive)
"Bring a window to front" onda_window_focus (omit windowId to focus primary)
"Read what the terminal has printed so far" onda_terminal_read (no subscribe needed)
"I want to receive every new output chunk" subscribe + poll loop
"Wait until the build finishes" onda_terminal_wait_for with regex
"Press Ctrl+C / Up / Esc" onda_terminal_send_keys (NOT terminal_send with "\x03"!)
"Type a command and run it" onda_terminal_run (text + \n)
"Detach listener when done" onda_terminal_unsubscribe (ALWAYS)
"Spawn Claude Code in a new pane with a prompt" onda_terminal_spawn with bin=claude, args=[prompt]

Read the full file on GitHub · 372 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 11d ago First seen · 372 lines · 138 tokens per session scan A d7e62ffd30e9

Subscribe to this mod's changes

onda-mcp-usage is a skill published in the GitHub repository mindfullabai/onda-mcp (0 stars, last pushed 3mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 138 tokens to every session and 4,872 once invoked, about $0.0007 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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