MCP File Tools

Provides non-UTF-8 file operations with automatic encoding conversion and tooling to read, write, edit, and manage files across legacy encodings.

GitHub Stars

Language

4 months ago

First Indexed

2 months ago

Catalog Refreshed

Documentation & install

Readme and setup notes from the catalogue, plus a client-ready config you can copy for your MCP host.

Installation

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

Configuration

View docs

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dimitar-grigorov-mcp-file-tools": {
      "command": "go",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "./cmd/mcp-file-tools",
        "/path/to/project"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GO111MODULE": "on",
        "MCP_DEFAULT_ENCODING": "utf-8",
        "MCP_MEMORY_THRESHOLD": "67108864"
      }
    }
  }
}

MCP File Tools enables reading, writing, and manipulating files across legacy encodings with automatic detection and conversion. It provides a suite of tools designed to keep data intact when working with non-UTF-8 text, making it ideal for Delphi/Pascal projects, legacy VB6 apps, old PHP/HTML sites, and non-UTF-8 configuration files.

How to use

Install and run the MCP File Tools server locally, then interact with it through a compatible MCP client. You can perform operations such as reading files with proper encoding, converting between encodings, editing lines, listing directories, and searching for content across a project while ensuring data integrity for legacy encodings.

How to install

Prerequisites: a Go 1.23+ toolchain is recommended for building or running the development flow. You can also run pre-built binaries on supported platforms if you prefer to avoid compiling.

Go-based run (development/debug flow) start command is shown below. Replace /path/to/project with your target directory when testing.

# Start the MCP server from source for a specific project path
go run ./cmd/mcp-file-tools /path/to/project

Additional setup notes

If you plan to use tooling integrations, you may configure your MCP client to point at the local Go runtime or at a pre-built binary if you prefer. For debugging and testing, you can use the MCP Inspector or other debugging utilities to exercise individual tools and verify encoding handling.

Available tools

read_text_file

Read a file with automatic encoding detection and conversion so you can obtain UTF-8 content or your preferred encoding.

read_multiple_files

Read several files concurrently with proper encoding handling to speed up batch reads.

write_file

Write content to a file using a specified encoding, ensuring data integrity for legacy encodings.

edit_file

Perform line-based edits with diff previews and whitespace-flexible matching to minimize unintended changes.

copy_file

Copy a file to a new location while preserving content and metadata.

delete_file

Delete a file from the filesystem in a controlled manner.

list_directory

Browse directories with optional pattern filtering to locate relevant files.

tree

Display a compact, indented tree view of a directory structure for quick navigation.

directory_tree

Get a recursive tree view as JSON (deprecated; use tree).

search_files

Recursively search for files matching glob patterns across directories.

grep_text_files

Regex search within file contents with encoding support to find text efficiently.

detect_encoding

Auto-detect the encoding of a given file with a confidence score.

convert_encoding

Convert a file's encoding from one charset to another.

detect_line_endings

Identify the line ending style used in a file (CRLF, LF, or mixed).

list_encodings

Show all supported encodings available for read and write operations.

get_file_info

Retrieve metadata about files and directories.

create_directory

Create directories recursively, equivalent to mkdir -p.

move_file

Move or rename files and directories.

list_allowed_directories

Show directories that your MCP client is allowed to access.

Built by

VeilStrat

AI signals for GTM teams