MCP IPFS Server provides a Node.js implementation of the Model Context Protocol (MCP) for interacting with the storacha.network platform. It acts as a bridge between MCP clients (like language models) and the storacha.network platform by wrapping the w3
command-line interface, enabling operations such as uploading/downloading data, managing spaces, and handling delegations.
npm install -g @web3-storage/w3cli
w3 login <[email protected]>
# Follow email verification steps
W3_LOGIN_EMAIL
to the same email used for w3 login
No installation needed - you can use the package directly via NPX:
npx -y mcp-ipfs
Pull the pre-built image:
docker pull alexbakers/mcp-ipfs
Or build it yourself:
git clone https://github.com/alexbakers/mcp-ipfs.git
cd mcp-ipfs
docker build -t alexbakers/mcp-ipfs .
Clone the repository and install dependencies:
git clone https://github.com/alexbakers/mcp-ipfs.git
cd mcp-ipfs
npm install
Build the TypeScript code:
npm run build
Run the server:
export W3_LOGIN_EMAIL="[email protected]"
node dist/index.js
Configure your MCP client to connect to this server using one of these approaches:
{
"mcpServers": {
"ipfs": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "mcp-ipfs"],
"env": {
"W3_LOGIN_EMAIL": "[email protected]"
}
}
}
}
{
"mcpServers": {
"mcp-ipfs": {
"command": "docker",
"args": [
"run",
"-i",
"--rm",
"-v",
"/path/to/your/project:/path/to/your/project",
"-e",
"W3_LOGIN_EMAIL",
"alexbakers/mcp-ipfs"
],
"env": {
"W3_LOGIN_EMAIL": "[email protected]"
}
}
}
}
For commands requiring filesystem paths (like w3_up
):
-v
flag (e.g., -v /Users/me/project:/Users/me/project
), then reference the container path.The server provides these MCP tools wrapping w3
functionality:
w3_login
: Log in to storacha.networkw3_reset
: Reset your loginw3_account_ls
: Check authorization statusw3_space_ls
: List available spacesw3_space_use
: Set the current spacew3_space_info
: Get information about a spacew3_space_add
: Add a spacew3_space_provision
: Provision a new spacew3_up
: Upload dataw3_ls
: List uploaded dataw3_rm
: Remove dataw3_open
: Generate a shareable w3s.link URLw3_delegation_create
: Create a delegationw3_delegation_ls
: List delegationsw3_delegation_revoke
: Revoke a delegationw3_proof_add
: Add a proofw3_proof_ls
: List proofsw3_key_create
: Create a keyw3_bridge_generate_tokens
: Generate bridge tokensw3_plan_get
: Get plan informationw3_coupon_create
: Create a couponw3_usage_report
: Generate a usage reportTo add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:
claude mcp add-json "ipfs" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","mcp-ipfs"],"env":{"W3_LOGIN_EMAIL":"[email protected]"}}'
See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.
There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json
file so that it is available in all of your projects.
If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json
file.
To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".
When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json
file will be opened and you can add your server like this:
{
"mcpServers": {
"ipfs": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"mcp-ipfs"
],
"env": {
"W3_LOGIN_EMAIL": "[email protected]"
}
}
}
}
To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json
file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.
Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.
The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.
You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.
To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:
1. Find your configuration file:
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
2. Add this to your configuration file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"ipfs": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"mcp-ipfs"
],
"env": {
"W3_LOGIN_EMAIL": "[email protected]"
}
}
}
}
3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect