Local stdio
Filesystem
Reference MCP server for reading and writing files inside directories you explicitly allow.
Published as @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem. Pass one or more absolute directories as arguments. That list is the access control. A client that still speaks the older Roots feature can swap directories at runtime, but Roots is deprecated in the 2026-07-28 protocol, so the command-line list is the one to set.
The package asks for Node.js 24 or later when you launch it with npx. This server has had path-bypass fixes before. Keep it updated, and do not point it at a home directory unless you mean that.
Setup snippet
{
"mcpServers": {
"filesystem": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "/absolute/path/you/allow"]
}
}
}Client config shape varies. Cursor and Claude Desktop use mcpServers. VS Code often uses servers. The values above are the part that matters.
- Homepage
- modelcontextprotocol.io/
- Maintainer
- MCP steering group
- Transport
- Local stdio
- Auth
- No token. Access is the directory allowlist you pass on the command line. Anything outside it is out of reach.
- Last verified
- Tags
- Reference, Local, Files