Everything MCP Server

Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Everything, the blazing-fast file search engine for Windows. Enables instant file and folder searching through MCP.

Features

• Lightning Fast: Leverages Everything's instant search capabilities
• Powerful Search Syntax: Wildcards, regex, boolean operators, size filters, date filters
• File Details: Get comprehensive file information (size, dates, attributes)
• Flexible Filtering: Filter by type, size, date, attributes, and more
• Sorting: Sort results by name, path, size, extension, or dates

Prerequisites

Windows Only - Everything search engine must be installed:

1. Download Everything: https://www.voidtools.com/downloads/
2. Install Everything and let it index your drives
3. Verify es.exe (command-line interface) is available at: C:\Program Files\Everything\es.exe
4. Bun (for development / the npm bin entry): https://bun.sh

Installation

Using Bun (Recommended)

bunx @danielsimonjr/everything-mcp

Global Installation

bun add -g @danielsimonjr/everything-mcp

From Source

git clone https://github.com/danielsimonjr/everything-mcp.git
cd everything-mcp
bun install
bun run build

Configuration

Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

Using Bunx

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "everything": {
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@danielsimonjr/everything-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Using Global Install

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

Custom es.exe Path

If es.exe is not in a probed install location, set the ES_PATH environment variable:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "everything": {
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@danielsimonjr/everything-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "ES_PATH": "C:\\\\Program Files\\\\Everything\\\\es.exe"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code

Add to .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "everything": {
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@danielsimonjr/everything-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

1. search

Search for files and folders using Everything's powerful search syntax.

Parameters:

• query (required): Search query using Everything syntax
• maxResults (optional): Maximum number of results (default: 50)
• regex (optional): Use regular expression search (default: false)
• caseSensitive (optional): Match case (default: false)
• wholeWord (optional): Match whole words only (default: false)
• matchPath (optional): Match full path and filename (default: false)
• foldersOnly (optional): Return only folders (default: false)
• filesOnly (optional): Return only files (default: false)
• sortBy (optional): Sort by name, path, size, extension, date-created, date-modified, date-accessed
• sortDescending (optional): Sort in descending order (default: false)
• showSize (optional): Include file size in results (default: false)
• showDateModified (optional): Include date modified in results (default: false)
• parentPath (optional): Search only within this parent path

Example:

{
  "query": "*.js",
  "sortBy": "date-modified",
  "sortDescending": true,
  "maxResults": 20
}

2. get_file_info

Get detailed information about a specific file.

Parameters:

• filename (required): Full path or filename to get information about

Returns: File size, creation date, modification date, access date, and attributes

Example:

{
  "filename": "C:\\\\Users\\\\username\\\\document.txt"
}

Companion skill

This plugin ships a companion skill, everything (everything-mcp:everything, slash trigger /everything), at skills/everything/SKILL.md. It's a judgment layer over the 2 tools above — no new tools of its own — that steers you toward search for name/pattern lookups and get_file_info for details on a known path, and flags a machine-specific gotcha: Everything's index excludes ~\Dropbox, so Dropbox-rooted searches silently miss files and should fall back to a filesystem walk (e.g. fzf-mcp's fuzzy_search_files) instead.

Everything Search Syntax

Everything supports powerful search syntax:

Basic Search

• Simple text: readme
• Wildcards: *.txt, file?.doc
• Multiple terms: report 2024 (AND is implicit)

Boolean Operators

• AND: file AND document or file document
• OR: txt OR doc
• NOT: NOT backup or !backup

File Extensions

• Single: ext:jpg
• Multiple: ext:jpg;png;gif

Size Filters

• Exact: size:1024kb
• Greater than: size:>1mb
• Less than: size:<100kb
• Range: size:1mb..10mb

Date Filters

• Modified: dm:today, dm:lastweek, dm:2024
• Created: dc:yesterday
• Accessed: da:thismonth

Attributes

• Hidden: attrib:H
• Read-only: attrib:R
• System: attrib:S
• Directory: attrib:D

Path Matching

• In folder: path:C:\\Users\\
• Parent: parent:Downloads

Advanced

• Regex: Enable with regex: true parameter
• Case-sensitive: Enable with caseSensitive: true
• Whole word: Enable with wholeWord: true

See Everything Search Syntax for complete reference.

Usage Examples

Example 1: Find Recent JavaScript Files

Tell Claude:

Use Everything to find all JavaScript files modified in the last week, sorted by date

Claude will use:

{
  "query": "*.js dm:lastweek",
  "sortBy": "date-modified",
  "sortDescending": true,
  "maxResults": 50
}

Example 2: Find Large Files

Tell Claude:

Find all files larger than 100MB

Claude will use:

{
  "query": "size:>100mb",
  "showSize": true,
  "sortBy": "size",
  "sortDescending": true
}

Example 3: Search in Specific Directory

Tell Claude:

Find all Python files in my Documents folder

Claude will use:

{
  "query": "*.py",
  "parentPath": "C:\\\\Users\\\\username\\\\Documents"
}

Example 4: Get File Information

Tell Claude:

Get detailed information about C:\\config.json

Claude will use:

{
  "filename": "C:\\\\config.json"
}

How It Works

1. Everything Service: Everything runs as a Windows service, maintaining a real-time index of all files
2. es.exe: Command-line interface to query the Everything database
3. MCP Server: Wraps es.exe and provides MCP tools for Claude
4. Instant Results: Searches complete in milliseconds, even across millions of files

Troubleshooting

Everything Not Found

Error: Failed to execute es.exe

Solutions:

1. Verify Everything is installed: Download from https://www.voidtools.com/
2. Ensure Everything service is running (check system tray)
3. Verify es.exe location:
   • Default: C:\\Program Files\\Everything\\es.exe
   • Scoop: C:\\Users\\<username>\\scoop\\apps\\everything\\current\\es.exe
4. Set ES_PATH environment variable in MCP config

No Results Found

Causes:

• Query doesn't match any files
• Everything database not fully indexed yet
• Incorrect search syntax

Solutions:

• Try a broader search term
• Check Everything GUI to verify files are indexed
• Review search syntax

Permission Issues

Issue: Can't access certain directories

Solution: Run Everything as administrator or adjust folder permissions

Development

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/danielsimonjr/everything-mcp.git
cd everything-mcp

# Install dependencies (Bun)
bun install

# Typecheck / test / build plugin bundle
bun run typecheck
bun test
bun run build

# Run locally over stdio
bun run src/index.ts

# Live initialize + tools/list smoke test
bun run smoke

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Test thoroughly
5. Submit a pull request

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Everything by voidtools - The amazing search engine
• Model Context Protocol by Anthropic

Links

• NPM Package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@danielsimonjr/everything-mcp
• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/danielsimonjr/everything-mcp
• Everything Search: https://www.voidtools.com/
• MCP Documentation: https://modelcontextprotocol.io

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