Text Editor MCP server

This MCP server provides the same functionality as Claude's built-in text editor tool, allowing you to view, edit, and create text files through a standardized API following the Model Context Protocol (MCP). It implements identical functionality to Claude's text editor while running as a local service.

Installation

Install the package from npm:

# Install from npm
npm install mcp-server-text-editor

# Or with pnpm
pnpm add mcp-server-text-editor

Setting Up the Server

Starting the Server

You can start the MCP server using npx:

# Using npx
npx -y mcp-server-text-editor

# Or if installed globally
mcp-server-text-editor

Configuring in Claude Desktop

To configure the text editor in Claude Desktop, add the following to your configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "textEditor": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-server-text-editor"]
    }
  }
}

Using the Text Editor

The text editor supports several commands for file operations, each with specific parameters.

Viewing File Contents

View the contents of a file, with optional line range specification:

{
  "command": "view",
  "path": "/path/to/file.js",
  "view_range": [1, 10] // Optional: Show lines 1-10 only
}

Creating Files

Create a new file with the specified content:

{
  "command": "create",
  "path": "/path/to/file.js",
  "file_text": "console.log('Hello, world!');"
}

Replacing Text

Replace specific text in a file:

{
  "command": "str_replace",
  "path": "/path/to/file.js",
  "old_str": "console.log('Hello, world!');",
  "new_str": "console.log('Hello, Claude!');"
}

Inserting Text

Insert text at a specific line number:

{
  "command": "insert",
  "path": "/path/to/file.js",
  "insert_line": 5,
  "new_str": "// This line was inserted by Claude"
}

Undoing Edits

Revert the last edit made to a file:

{
  "command": "undo_edit",
  "path": "/path/to/file.js"
}

Supported Versions

The package implements functionality equivalent to the following Claude text editor tool versions:

• text_editor_20241022 (Claude 3.5 Sonnet)
• text_editor_20250124 (Claude 3.7 Sonnet)

Note that it uses the tool name 'text_editor' to avoid conflicts with Claude's built-in tools.

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 "textEditor" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","mcp-server-text-editor"]}'

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": {
        "textEditor": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "mcp-server-text-editor"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "textEditor": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "mcp-server-text-editor"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect