diff --git a/metagpt/tools/libs/shell.py b/metagpt/tools/libs/shell.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5eb54f310
--- /dev/null
+++ b/metagpt/tools/libs/shell.py
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import subprocess
+from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Dict, List, Tuple, Union
+
+from metagpt.tools.tool_registry import register_tool
+
+
+@register_tool(tags=["shell"])
+async def execute(
+    command: Union[List[str], str], cwd: str | Path = None, env: Dict = None, timeout: int = 600
+) -> Tuple[str, str]:
+    """
+    Execute a command asynchronously and return its standard output and standard error.
+
+    Args:
+        command (Union[List[str], str]): The command to execute and its arguments. It can be provided either as a list
+            of strings or as a single string.
+        cwd (str | Path, optional): The current working directory for the command. Defaults to None.
+        env (Dict, optional): Environment variables to set for the command. Defaults to None.
+        timeout (int, optional): Timeout for the command execution in seconds. Defaults to 600.
+
+    Returns:
+        Tuple[str, str]: A tuple containing the standard output and standard error of the executed command, both as
+         strings.
+
+    Raises:
+        ValueError: If the command times out, this error is raised. The error message contains both standard output and
+         standard error of the timed-out process.
+
+    Example:
+        >>> # command is a list
+        >>> stdout, stderr = await execute(command=["ls", "-l"], cwd="/home/user", env={"PATH": "/usr/bin"})
+        >>> print(stdout)
+        total 8
+        -rw-r--r-- 1 user user    0 Mar 22 10:00 file1.txt
+        -rw-r--r-- 1 user user    0 Mar 22 10:00 file2.txt
+        ...
+
+        >>> # command is a string of shell script
+        >>> stdout, stderr = await execute(command="ls -l", cwd="/home/user", env={"PATH": "/usr/bin"})
+        >>> print(stdout)
+        total 8
+        -rw-r--r-- 1 user user    0 Mar 22 10:00 file1.txt
+        -rw-r--r-- 1 user user    0 Mar 22 10:00 file2.txt
+        ...
+    """
+    cwd = str(cwd) if cwd else None
+    shell = True if isinstance(command, str) else False
+    process = subprocess.Popen(command, cwd=cwd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE, env=env, shell=shell)
+    try:
+        # Wait for the process to complete, with a timeout
+        stdout, stderr = process.communicate(timeout=timeout)
+        return stdout.decode("utf-8"), stderr.decode("utf-8")
+    except subprocess.TimeoutExpired:
+        process.kill()  # Kill the process if it times out
+        stdout, stderr = process.communicate()
+        raise ValueError(f"{stdout.decode('utf-8')}\n{stderr.decode('utf-8')}")
diff --git a/tests/metagpt/tools/libs/test_shell.py b/tests/metagpt/tools/libs/test_shell.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..283cc8229
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/metagpt/tools/libs/test_shell.py
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+import pytest
+
+from metagpt.tools.libs.shell import execute
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    ["command", "expect_stdout", "expect_stderr"],
+    [
+        (["file", f"{__file__}"], "Python script text executable, ASCII text", ""),
+        (f"file {__file__}", "Python script text executable, ASCII text", ""),
+    ],
+)
+async def test_shell(command, expect_stdout, expect_stderr):
+    stdout, stderr = await execute(command)
+    assert expect_stdout in stdout
+    assert stderr == expect_stderr
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    pytest.main([__file__, "-s"])