Fast Filesystem MCP

What efforthye/fast-filesystem-mcp does

efforthye/fast-filesystem-mcp MCP server connects an MCP client to filesystem operations on the machine where it runs. It can inspect allowed directories, read one or more files, write files, create directories, retrieve file metadata, and display directory trees. The tool set also covers copying, moving, deleting, compressing, extracting, and synchronizing files and directories.

Search tools can find files by name or content, search code with ripgrep-style behavior, report disk usage, and locate large files. Editing tools support exact block replacement, safer edit flows, multiple edits, and extraction of selected lines. These capabilities place the project in the 📂 File Systems category for agents that need direct local file manipulation.

How it works

The server communicates over MCP and is configured as a command launched with npx. File-reading operations can chunk large responses, paginate directory results, or continue sequentially when a complete large file cannot be returned at once.

Search operations can use chunking, regular expressions, context, and line numbers where supported by the selected tool. Editing operations include exact block matching and batch changes. The available filesystem scope is exposed through fast_list_allowed_directories, while automatic exclusions for system files and directories are described as part of the project’s behavior.

Setup and configuration

Claude Desktop can launch efforthye/fast-filesystem-mcp MCP server with this configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fast-filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "fast-filesystem-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Backup creation is disabled by default. Set CREATE_BACKUP_FILES=true in the server environment to create timestamped backup files before modifications. These settings are optional rather than required for startup.

Tools and capabilities

The tool collection includes:

• Reading and writing: fast_read_file, fast_read_multiple_files, fast_write_file, and fast_large_write_file.
• Discovery: fast_list_allowed_directories, fast_list_directory, fast_get_file_info, fast_get_directory_tree, and fast_get_disk_usage.
• Search: fast_search_files, fast_search_code, and fast_find_large_files.
• Editing: fast_edit_block, fast_safe_edit, fast_edit_multiple_blocks, fast_edit_blocks, and fast_extract_lines.
• File management: copy, move, delete, batch operations, compression, archive extraction, and directory synchronization.

Limitations and notes

The provided setup documentation specifically demonstrates Claude Desktop; it does not describe authentication, remote storage, or network filesystem integrations. Backup files add timestamped files beside modified content when enabled, so deployments that require a clean working tree should account for them. Debug output is directed away from normal MCP communication by default because writing unexpected output to the protocol stream can cause JSON parsing problems. The project is licensed under Apache-2.0.