Why This One?

Performance

Real benchmark from this machine (Windows, query: everything.exe):

• everything-mcp (Everything index via es.exe): 220.22 ms avg (5 runs)
• Naive filesystem walk over C:\: 66,539.03 ms (single run)
• Observed speedup: ~302x faster

Reproduce locally (PowerShell):

@'
import os
import subprocess
import time
import statistics

ES = os.path.expandvars(r"%LOCALAPPDATA%\Everything\es.exe")
QUERY = "everything.exe"

es_runs = []
for _ in range(5):
    t0 = time.perf_counter()
    subprocess.run([ES, "-n", "100", QUERY], capture_output=True, text=True)
    es_runs.append((time.perf_counter() - t0) * 1000)

t0 = time.perf_counter()
matches = []
for dirpath, _, filenames in os.walk(r"C:\\"):
    for name in filenames:
        if name.lower() == QUERY:
            matches.append(os.path.join(dirpath, name))
walk_ms = (time.perf_counter() - t0) * 1000

es_avg = statistics.mean(es_runs)
print("ES avg ms:", round(es_avg, 2))
print("Walk ms:", round(walk_ms, 2))
print("Speedup x:", round(walk_ms / es_avg, 1))
print("Matches:", len(matches))
'@ | python -

Installation

Prerequisites

1. Windows with Everything installed and running
2. es.exe (Everything command-line interface):
   • Everything 1.5 alpha: es.exe is included
   • Everything 1.4: Download from github.com/voidtools/es
   • Place es.exe in your PATH or in the Everything installation directory
3. Python 3.10+ or uv

Via uv (recommended - no install needed)

uvx everything-mcp

Via pip

pip install everything-mcp

From source

git clone https://github.com/elis132/everything-mcp.git
cd everything-mcp
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "everything": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["everything-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

claude mcp add everything -- uvx everything-mcp
claude mcp list

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "everything": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["everything-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "everything": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["everything-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

codex mcp add everything -- uvx everything-mcp
codex mcp list

gemini mcp add -s user everything uvx everything-mcp
gemini mcp list

kimi mcp add --transport stdio everything -- uvx everything-mcp
kimi mcp list

qwen mcp add -s user everything uvx everything-mcp
qwen mcp list

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "everything": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["everything-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "everything": {
      "command": "everything-mcp"
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "everything": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "everything_mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Environment Variables (Optional)

Everything MCP auto-detects your setup, but you can override:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "everything": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["everything-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "EVERYTHING_INSTANCE": "1.5a"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools

1. everything_search - The Workhorse

Search files and folders using Everything's full query syntax.

Everything Search Syntax:

*.py                          → All Python files
ext:py;js;ts                  → Multiple extensions
ext:py path:C:\Projects       → Python files in Projects
size:>10mb                    → Larger than 10 MB
size:1kb..1mb                 → Between 1 KB and 1 MB
dm:today                      → Modified today
dm:last1week                  → Modified in the last week
dc:2024                       → Created in 2024
"exact name.txt"              → Exact filename match
project1 | project2           → OR search
!node_modules                 → Exclude term
ext:py !test !__pycache__     → Python, excluding tests
content:TODO                  → Files containing TODO (requires content indexing)
regex:^test_.*\.py$           → Regex search
parent:src ext:py             → Python files in 'src' folders
dupe:                         → Duplicate filenames
empty:                        → Empty folders

2. everything_search_by_type - Category Search

Search by pre-defined file type categories.

Categories: audio, video, image, document, code, archive, executable, font, 3d, data

3. everything_find_recent - What Changed?

Find recently modified files. Sorted newest-first.

Periods: 1min, 5min, 10min, 15min, 30min, 1hour, 2hours, 6hours, 12hours, today, yesterday, 1day, 3days, 1week, 2weeks, 1month, 3months, 6months, 1year

4. everything_file_details - Deep Inspection

Get metadata and optional content preview for specific files.

Returns: Full metadata (size, dates, permissions, hidden status). Directories: item count and listing. Text files with preview: first N lines of content.

5. everything_count_stats - Quick Analytics

Get count and size statistics without listing individual files.

Examples

"Find all Python files modified today in my project"

→ everything_find_recent(period="today", extensions="py", path="C:\Projects\myapp")

"How much disk space do my log files use?"

→ everything_count_stats(query="ext:log", include_size=true, breakdown_by_extension=true)

"Show me the first 50 lines of that config file"

→ everything_file_details(paths=["C:\Projects\app\config.yaml"], preview_lines=50)

"Find all duplicate filenames in Documents"

→ everything_search(query='dupe: path:"C:\Users\me\Documents"')

"Find all images larger than 5MB"

→ everything_search(query="ext:jpg;png;gif size:>5mb")

Troubleshooting

"es.exe not found"

1. Ensure Everything is installed: https://www.voidtools.com/
2. Download es.exe: https://github.com/voidtools/es/releases
3. Place es.exe in your PATH or set EVERYTHING_ES_PATH

"Everything IPC window not found"

1. Ensure Everything is running (check system tray)
2. If using Everything 1.5 alpha, set EVERYTHING_INSTANCE=1.5a
3. Ensure you're not running Everything Lite (no IPC support)

"No results for valid queries"

1. Verify Everything's index is built (needs time on first run)
2. Try the same query in Everything's GUI
3. Check that the drive/path is included in Everything's index settings

Debugging

# View server logs
everything-mcp 2>everything-mcp.log

# MCP Inspector
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uvx everything-mcp

Architecture

┌──────────────┐     MCP (stdio)     ┌──────────────────┐
│  AI Agent    │◄────────────────────►│  Everything MCP  │
│ (Claude,     │                      │  Server          │
│  Codex, etc) │                      │                  │
└──────────────┘                      │  5 Tools:        │
                                      │  • search        │
                                      │  • search_by_type│
                                      │  • find_recent   │
                                      │  • file_details  │
                                      │  • count_stats   │
                                      └────────┬─────────┘
                                               │ async subprocess
                                               ▼
                                      ┌──────────────────┐
                                      │     es.exe       │
                                      │  (CLI interface)  │
                                      └────────┬─────────┘
                                               │ IPC / Named Pipes
                                               ▼
                                      ┌──────────────────┐
                                      │   Everything     │
                                      │   Service        │
                                      │  (voidtools)     │
                                      │                  │
                                      │  Real-time NTFS  │
                                      │  file index      │
                                      └──────────────────┘

Development

# Install with dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests
pytest

# Lint
ruff check src/ tests/

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Areas for improvement:

• Direct named pipe IPC (bypass es.exe for lower latency)
• Everything SDK3 integration for Everything 1.5
• Content search integration
• File watching / change notifications
• Bookmark and tag support (Everything 1.5)

License

MIT - see LICENSE

Acknowledgments

• voidtools for the incredible Everything search engine
• Anthropic for the Model Context Protocol specification
• The MCP community for driving adoption across AI tools