The Desktop Commander MCP Server is a powerful tool that brings all your development operations into one chat interface. Built on top of the MCP Filesystem Server, it allows you to search, edit, and manage files, run terminal commands, and control processes directly from your desktop using the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Following are the core capabilities of the Desktop Commander MCP server:

Terminal & Process Control

Execute terminal commands with live output streaming
Set timeouts and run commands in the background
Manage sessions for long-running tasks
List and kill running processes with detailed info

Configuration Management

Get or set server settings like:
- defaultShell (e.g., bash, zsh)
- blockedCommands (e.g., rm, shutdown)
- allowedDirectories for file access
- telemetryEnabled
Apply changes without restarting the server

Filesystem Operations

Read and write files with line-based limits
Append or overwrite file content
Create and list directories
Move or rename files and folders
Get file and directory metadata
Search files by name (case-insensitive)

Code & Text Editing

Perform precise text replacements (e.g., change config values)
Rewrite entire files for major updates
Search and replace patterns across multiple files
Use vscode-ripgrep for fast recursive text/code search

Audit Logging

All actions are logged with timestamps and arguments
Logs auto-rotate at 10MB to avoid clutter

In this tutorial, we will be connecting Claude desktop with the MCP server and perform some tasks.

Step 1: Setting up dependencies

Node JS

We need npx to run the Desktop Commander server, which comes with Node.js.

Download the latest version of Node.js from
Run the installer.
Leave all settings as default and complete the installation

Claude Desktop

Download Claude using .

Step 2: Configuring the MCP Server

Next, configure Claude to connect to your MCP server. Open the claude_desktop_config.json file located in the Claude installation directory using any text editor. If the file doesn’t exist, you can create it manually. Once opened, enter the following code:

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

Step 3: Running the server

Once the MCP configuration is complete, your server should appear in Claude. The Desktop Commander server is a powerful interface, offering 18 tools for tasks like file management, terminal execution, process control, and more.