Desktop Commander MCP

What it does

Desktop Commander MCP turns Claude into a full-featured developer assistant with direct access to your computer's terminal, file system, and code. Run shell commands, manage processes, read and edit files, search codebases, and interact with running programs — all without leaving your AI chat.

Key features

• Terminal control — Execute commands, manage long-running processes, send input to interactive sessions (SSH, databases, dev servers)
• Surgical code editing — Precise search-and-replace block editing with fuzzy fallback; avoids wasteful full-file rewrites
• Full filesystem operations — Read/write text, Excel (.xlsx), PDF, and DOCX files; recursive directory listing; ripgrep-powered content search
• In-memory code execution — Run Python, Node.js, and R without saving files to disk
• Remote MCP support — Use Desktop Commander from Claude.ai web or ChatGPT via the hosted relay at mcp.desktopcommander.app
• Docker isolation — Optional sandboxed mode for zero-risk operation on your host

Installation

Claude Desktop (npx — recommended):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "desktop-commander": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Or run the one-liner setup: npx @wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander@latest setup

Cursor: Add the same JSON to ~/.cursor/mcp.json

VS Code Copilot: Add to .vscode/mcp.json and enable MCP in Agent mode settings

Windsurf: Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

Claude.ai web / ChatGPT (Remote MCP): Connect to https://mcp.desktopcommander.app — no local setup needed

Codex:

codex mcp add desktop-commander -- npx -y @wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander@latest

Gemini CLI (~/.gemini/settings.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "desktop-commander": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Supported hosts

Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code Copilot, Windsurf, Claude.ai web (via Remote MCP), ChatGPT (via Remote MCP), Codex, Gemini CLI