dropboxmcp

A command-line tool and MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for listing and downloading files from Dropbox using the Dropbox API v2.

Setup

1. Create a Dropbox App

1. Go to https://www.dropbox.com/developers/apps
2. Click Create app
3. Choose Scoped access and Full Dropbox
4. Name your app and click Create app

2. Configure Permissions

In your app's Permissions tab, enable:

• files.metadata.read — required for listing folders
• files.content.read — required for downloading files

Click Submit to save.

3. Generate an Access Token

In your app's Settings tab, click Generate under OAuth 2 to get an access token.

Note: If you change permissions, you must regenerate the token.

4. Set the Environment Variable

export DROPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN="sl.XXXXX..."

Alternatively, pass the token directly with the --token flag:

dropboxmcp --token "sl.XXXXX..." ls /

Building

cargo build --release

The binary will be at target/release/dropboxmcp.

Usage

List folder contents

# List root folder
dropboxmcp ls

# List a specific folder
dropboxmcp ls /Documents

# Long format with size, modified date, and full path
dropboxmcp ls /Documents -l

Short format output:

d Photos
d Documents
  notes.txt
  report.pdf

Long format output (-l):

d          -  -                     /Photos
d          -  -                     /Documents
f     1.2 KB  2024-01-15T10:30:00Z  /notes.txt
f     3.4 MB  2024-02-20T14:22:00Z  /report.pdf

2 file(s), 2 folder(s), 4 total

Download a file

# Download to current directory (keeps original filename)
dropboxmcp download /Documents/report.pdf

# Download with a custom output filename
dropboxmcp download /Documents/report.pdf -o my-report.pdf

Downloads show a progress bar when the file size is known.

MCP Server Mode

Run as an MCP stdio server for use with Claude Desktop and other MCP-compliant clients:

dropboxmcp --mcp --token "sl.XXXXX..."

The server exposes two tools over JSON-RPC on stdin/stdout:

• list_folder — List the contents of a Dropbox folder (type, size, date, path)
• download_file — Download a file from Dropbox to the local filesystem

Claude Desktop Configuration

Add to your Claude Desktop config (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dropbox": {
      "command": "/path/to/dropboxmcp",
      "args": ["--mcp", "--token", "sl.XXXXX..."]
    }
  }
}

Testing with MCP Inspector

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector /path/to/dropboxmcp --mcp --token "sl.XXXXX..."