@privacyscrubber/mcp-server

CISO-Approved Zero-Trust PII & Secrets Redaction MCP Server for Cursor, Windsurf, and Claude Desktop. Locally scrubs PII, secrets, credentials, and custom regex rules from files and text contexts before they reach remote LLM providers to prevent API leaks and ensure HIPAA/SOC 2 compliance at the developer endpoint.

🔒 Zero-Trust Data Flow

All sensitive parameters, identifiers, and variables are intercepted locally inside your machine's RAM. They are replaced by tokens (e.g. [EMAIL_1]) before being sent to the AI. Once the AI responds, the tokens are safely swapped back to original values in your local context.

[Raw Input / Files] ──> [MCP sanitize_text] ──> [Masked Tokens] ──> [LLM API]
                               │                                       │
                        (In-Memory Map)                             (Result)
                               │                                       │
[Original Output] <─── [MCP reveal_text] <─────────────────────────────┘

🚀 Installation

1. Install via Smithery

To automatically configure and run with your preferred client, install using Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @privacyscrubber/mcp-server --write-to-clients

2. Instant Run with NPX

Run the server directly without local installation:

npx -y @privacyscrubber/mcp-server

3. Programmatic Node.js / TypeScript SDK

Need direct, in-memory zero-trust PII sanitization in your backend microservice or custom AI agent rather than an MCP server? Use our official zero-dependency SDK:

npm install @privacyscrubber/sdk

import OpenAI from 'openai';
import { wrapOpenAI } from '@privacyscrubber/sdk';

// Transparently masks PII before sending to LLM and rehydrates responses:
const openai = wrapOpenAI(new OpenAI({ apiKey: process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY }));

👉 View @privacyscrubber/sdk on NPM | Includes wrapOpenAI() middleware, TypeScript definitions, and 25 compliance profiles.

⚙️ Client Integrations

Claude Desktop

Add this to your Claude Desktop config file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "privacyscrubber": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@privacyscrubber/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "PRIVACYSCRUBBER_KEY": "YOUR_OPTIONAL_PRO_LICENSE_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor / Windsurf

1. Navigate to Settings -> Features -> MCP.
2. Add new MCP server:
   • Name: privacyscrubber
   • Type: command
   • Command: npx -y @privacyscrubber/mcp-server
3. Optional: Set PRIVACYSCRUBBER_KEY as an environment variable in your system shell.

🛠️ Provided Tools & JSON-RPC Specifications

1. sanitize_text

Redacts PII, secrets, API keys, and credentials from a text block and populates the volatile local replacement mapping.

• Arguments:
  • text (string, required): The raw content or logs to sanitize.
  • profile (string, optional): Gated industry detection profile (e.g., 'General', 'Dev', 'Medical', 'Legal', 'Compliance'). Defaults to 'General'.
• JSON-RPC Call Example:
  config.json

  Copy

  {
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params": {
      "name": "sanitize_text",
      "arguments": {
        "text": "Contact me at dev-key-1234 or jane.doe@company.com",
        "profile": "General"
      }
    }
  }
  

• Response Example:
  config.json

  Copy

  {
    "content": [
      {
        "type": "text",
        "text": "Contact me at [SECRET_1] or [EMAIL_1]"
      }
    ]
  }
  

2. reveal_text

Detokenizes the AI response back to the original values locally.

• Arguments:
  • text (string, required): The response from the LLM containing tokenized placeholders.
• JSON-RPC Call Example:
  config.json

  Copy

  {
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params": {
      "name": "reveal_text",
      "arguments": {
        "text": "Please reach out to [EMAIL_1] regarding the update."
      }
    }
  }
  

• Response Example:
  config.json

  Copy

  {
    "content": [
      {
        "type": "text",
        "text": "Please reach out to jane.doe@company.com regarding the update."
      }
    ]
  }
  

3. sanitize_file

Reads a local file, extracts text, sanitizes it, and returns the redacted template for LLM analysis.

• Supported Formats: Plain text (source code, logs, CSV, JSON, markdown) and Microsoft Word (.docx) documents.
• Arguments:
  • filePath (string, required): Absolute file path to read and sanitize.
  • profile (string, optional): The industry detection profile.

🌐 Browser Extension & Web Client

Looking for real-time protection directly inside your web browser?

• Chrome Extension: Get the PrivacyScrubber Chrome Extension to sanitize prompts directly inside ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini in real-time.
• Web Sandbox: Use the zero-server browser sanitization tools at PrivacyScrubber Homepage.

📄 License & Commercial Upgrade

By default, the server runs under the Free Tier (restricted to 15,000 characters per request and the basic General PII profile). To unlock 25 specialized engineering, medical, legal, and financial PII profiles, as well as team-wide custom rules, you can purchase a commercial license.

Feature Comparison

👉 Acquire a PRO / TEAMS License Key at privacyscrubber.com/pricing

4. check_status

Returns a visual dashboard showing your current tier, session request count, active profiles, and upgrade instructions. Use it at any time to check your license status or get setup help.

• Arguments: (none required)
• JSON-RPC Call Example:
  config.json

  Copy

  {
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params": { "name": "check_status", "arguments": {} }
  }
  

• Response Example (Free Tier):
  Code

  Copy

  ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
  ║       PrivacyScrubber MCP Server v1.7.1          ║
  ╠══════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
  ║  🔓 Tier: FREE                                   ║
  ║  📊 Session requests: 5                          ║
  ║  📁 Input size limit: 15,000 characters/request  ║
  ╠══════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
  ║  🏷️  Profiles: General only — PRO unlocks 25 more ║
  ║  📋 Custom rules: 🔒 Locked — requires PRO       ║
  ╠══════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
  ║  💳 Upgrade to PRO — $110 Lifetime               ║
  ║     https://privacyscrubber.com/pricing?utm_source=npm&utm_medium=readme&utm_campaign=mcp_server          ║
  ╠══════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
  ║  After purchase, add your key to MCP config:     ║
  ║  "PRIVACYSCRUBBER_KEY": "<your-key-here>"        ║
  ║  Full setup guide:                               ║
  ║  https://privacyscrubber.com/features/mcp/?utm_source=npm&utm_medium=readme&utm_campaign=mcp_server       ║
  ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
  

🔐 After Purchase: Activate PRO in Your MCP Client

After purchasing a PRO license at privacyscrubber.com/pricing, you will receive a license key. Add it to your MCP client config as an environment variable: PRIVACYSCRUBBER_KEY.

Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "privacyscrubber": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@privacyscrubber/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "PRIVACYSCRUBBER_KEY": "YOUR_LICENSE_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after saving.

Cursor

1. Go to Settings → Features → MCP Servers.
2. Find privacyscrubber and click Edit.
3. Add the environment variable: PRIVACYSCRUBBER_KEY=YOUR_LICENSE_KEY_HERE.
4. Restart Cursor.

Alternatively, export it system-wide so all tools pick it up:

# macOS / Linux — add to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc
export PRIVACYSCRUBBER_KEY="YOUR_LICENSE_KEY_HERE"

Windsurf

Edit ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "privacyscrubber": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@privacyscrubber/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "PRIVACYSCRUBBER_KEY": "YOUR_LICENSE_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Verify Activation

After adding the key, ask your AI agent to call check_status:

Use the check_status tool from PrivacyScrubber MCP

The dashboard should show Tier: PRO and all profiles unlocked.

📚 Academic Foundations & Regulatory Verification

PrivacyScrubber and the Zero-Trust Data Sanitization (ZTDS) protocol are backed by published scientific, clinical, and legal treatises:

Citing PrivacyScrubber in Research & Audits

@software{sibiryakov2026privacyscrubber,
  author = {Sibiryakov, Ilya},
  title = {PrivacyScrubber: Zero-Trust Data Sanitization (ZTDS) Engine & MCP Server},
  year = {2026},
  publisher = {Zenodo},
  doi = {10.5281/zenodo.22058770},
  url = {https://github.com/moxno/privacyscrubber-mcp}
}

📄 License

MIT © Ilya Sibiryakov (BrandMeWeb)