Filesystem MCP server for AI agents

MCP Filesystem is a server implementation of the Model Context Protocol that provides access to files in a specified directory as MCP resources. It intelligently handles file detection, MIME type identification, and can notify clients when files change, making it ideal for integrating local files with AI applications that support MCP.

Installation

Prerequisites

Install Go by following the instructions at https://golang.org/doc/install

Installing MCP Filesystem

Install the server using Go:

go install github.com/isaacphi/mcp-filesystem@latest

Client Configuration

Add the MCP Filesystem server to your client configuration. For Claude Desktop, edit the configuration file located at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "mcp-filesystem",
      "args": ["--workspace", "/path/to/your/repository"]
    }
  }
}

Replace /path/to/your/repository with the absolute path to your project directory.

Usage

Once configured, MCP Filesystem exposes all non-ignored files in your specified directory as MCP resources. Your client can access these files directly through the MCP protocol.

Key Features

File Access: All files in your workspace become accessible resources
Gitignore Compliance: Files excluded by .gitignore rules are automatically hidden
Change Detection: The server detects and notifies when files are added, modified, or deleted
MIME Type Detection: Files are served with appropriate MIME types for proper rendering

Debug Mode

To enable verbose logging for troubleshooting, add the DEBUG environment variable to your configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "mcp-filesystem",
      "args": ["--workspace", "/path/to/your/repository"],
      "env": {
        "DEBUG": "1"
      }
    }
  }
}

Client Requirements

For full functionality, your MCP client should support:

Listing and accessing resources
Receiving change notifications via notifications/resources/list_changed events
Rendering resource content with appropriate MIME types

Current Limitations

The MCP Filesystem server is pre-beta quality. While functional, you may encounter issues that need to be reported to the project maintainers.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "filesystem" '{"command":"mcp-filesystem","args":["--workspace","/path/to/your/repository"]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

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.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

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": {
        "filesystem": {
            "command": "mcp-filesystem",
            "args": [
                "--workspace",
                "/path/to/your/repository"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

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.

How to use the MCP server

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.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "filesystem": {
            "command": "mcp-filesystem",
            "args": [
                "--workspace",
                "/path/to/your/repository"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect