Filesystem (Python) MCP server

This MCP Filesystem server provides secure, read-only access to files in a specified directory, allowing Claude AI to access your local files through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). It enables file search capabilities and includes security features like path traversal protection.

Installation

You can install the MCP Filesystem server using UV:

uv add mcp-filesystem-python

Running the Server

To start the server, specify the directory you want to expose:

uv run src/filesystem/server.py /path/to/directory

This will make all files in the specified directory available to compatible AI applications through the MCP protocol.

Claude Desktop Integration

The MCP Filesystem server is designed to work with Claude Desktop, allowing you to provide Claude with access to your local files.

Configuration Setup

You'll need to create a configuration file for Claude Desktop:

• macOS/Linux: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %AppData%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Configuration Examples

Below are examples of configuration files for different operating systems:

For macOS/Linux

{
  "mcp_servers": [
    {
      "name": "Filesystem",
      "command": ["/absolute/path/to/python", "/absolute/path/to/src/filesystem/server.py", "/path/to/directory/to/expose"],
      "schemes": ["file"]
    }
  ]
}

For Windows

{
  "mcp_servers": [
    {
      "name": "Filesystem",
      "command": ["C:\\absolute\\path\\to\\python", "C:\\absolute\\path\\to\\src\\filesystem\\server.py", "C:\\path\\to\\directory\\to\\expose"],
      "schemes": ["file"]
    }
  ]
}

Configuration Tips

When setting up your Claude Desktop configuration:

• Replace the paths with your actual absolute paths
• Use forward slashes (/) for macOS/Linux and backslashes (\\) for Windows
• Ensure all paths are absolute (not relative)
• The server respects .gitignore patterns for excluding files
• File MIME types are automatically detected

Once configured correctly, Claude Desktop will be able to access files from your specified directory when you reference them using the file:// URI scheme.

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 "mcp-filesystem-python" '{"command":"uv","args":["run","src/filesystem/server.py","/path/to/directory"]}'

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": {
        "mcp-filesystem-python": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "src/filesystem/server.py",
                "/path/to/directory"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "mcp-filesystem-python": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "src/filesystem/server.py",
                "/path/to/directory"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect