Privacyscrubber MCP

What moxno/privacyscrubber-mcp MCP server does

The moxno/privacyscrubber-mcp MCP server provides local redaction for personally identifiable information, secrets, API keys, credentials, and other sensitive values. It is intended for use with Cursor, Windsurf, and Claude Desktop, where content may otherwise be passed to a remote language-model provider.

The server can process text directly or read supported local files. Plain text, source code, logs, CSV, JSON, Markdown, and Microsoft Word .docx files are listed as supported inputs. Sanitized output replaces detected values with tokens such as [EMAIL_1] and [SECRET_1].

How it works

When sanitize_text or sanitize_file runs, detected values are replaced with placeholders and a replacement map is held in volatile local memory. The masked content can then be provided to an AI system. After the AI responds, reveal_text uses that local mapping to replace recognized tokens with their original values.

This design keeps the original values on the local endpoint during the documented sanitization flow. The moxno/privacyscrubber-mcp MCP server does not require a separate hosted data service in the installation instructions; it runs through the package’s local MCP process.

Setup and configuration

Run the package directly with:

npx -y @privacyscrubber/mcp-server

For Claude Desktop, add an MCP entry using npx and the package name as the command arguments. Cursor and Windsurf can add the same command as a command-type MCP server. The optional PRIVACYSCRUBBER_KEY environment variable activates a purchased license; it is not needed for the documented free tier.

The free tier allows up to 50,000 characters per request and provides the General profile. The README lists a lifetime PRO license and a monthly TEAMS license for additional profiles, custom regex rules, and, for TEAMS, shared rule synchronization.

Tools and capabilities

• sanitize_text accepts text and an optional profile. The documented profile examples include General, Dev, Medical, Legal, and Compliance.
• reveal_text accepts text containing generated placeholders and restores values from the current local mapping.
• sanitize_file reads an absolute file path, extracts supported content, and returns a sanitized version for analysis.
• check_status reports the current tier, session request count, active profiles, input limits, and upgrade information.

Limitations and notes

The moxno/privacyscrubber-mcp MCP server’s free tier is limited to the General profile and 50,000 characters per request. Custom regex rules and the additional industry profiles require a commercial license. The supplied material does not document behavior for file formats beyond plain-text-style files and .docx, so other formats should not be assumed to work.

The replacement map is described as volatile and in-memory. Applications should therefore treat the mapping as session-local rather than as durable storage. The README also references a separate browser extension and web sandbox, but those are not tools provided by this MCP package.