Filesystem (Reference)

Add to your client

Copy the config for your MCP client and paste it into its config file.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem-reference": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
        "/absolute/path/to/dir"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Before you start

• Node.js 18+ (to run via `npx @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem`), OR Docker if using the container image
• No credentials or auth — access is granted by listing allowed directories as args, or via the client's MCP Roots support
• One or more directory paths you intend to expose to the model

About Filesystem (Reference)

Tools & capabilities (13)

When to use it

• Use it when you want an agent to read and edit a codebase or document set that lives on your local disk.
• Use it when you need bulk file operations — read many files, search by glob, or generate a directory tree for context.
• Use it when you want strict sandboxing: expose only specific folders and reject everything else.
• Use it when you need surgical, diff-style edits to files rather than full rewrites (`edit_file`).
• Use it when running in Docker and want to mount certain project folders read-only for safety.

Quick setup

1. 1Pick the directories you want to expose (e.g. ~/projects/myapp).
2. 2Add the server to your MCP client config, e.g. command `npx` with args `-y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem /path/to/allowed/dir`.
3. 3Alternatively use the Docker image `mcp/filesystem`, mounting host paths into `/projects` (append `,ro` to a mount for read-only).
4. 4Restart the MCP client so it launches the server.
5. 5Verify by asking the model to call `list_allowed_directories` or `list_directory` on an exposed path.

Filesystem (Reference) FAQ