In this tutorial, you will extend Claude for Desktop so that it can read from your computer’s file system, write new files, move files, and even search files.

Don’t worry — it will ask you for your permission before executing these actions!

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1. Download Claude for Desktop

Start by downloading Claude for Desktop, choosing either macOS or Windows. (Linux is not yet supported for Claude for Desktop.)

Follow the installation instructions.

If you already have Claude for Desktop, make sure it’s on the latest version by clicking on the Claude menu on your computer and selecting “Check for Updates…”

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2. Add the Filesystem MCP Server

To add this filesystem functionality, we will be installing a pre-built Filesystem MCP Server to Claude for Desktop. This is one of dozens of servers created by Anthropic and the community.

Get started by opening up the Claude menu on your computer and select “Settings…” Please note that these are not the Claude Account Settings found in the app window itself.

This is what it should look like on a Mac:

Click on “Developer” in the lefthand bar of the Settings pane, and then click on “Edit Config”:

This will create a configuration file at:

  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

if you don’t already have one, and will display the file in your file system.

Open up the configuration file in any text editor. Replace the file contents with this:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
        "/Users/username/Desktop",
        "/Users/username/Downloads"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Make sure to replace username with your computer’s username. The paths should point to valid directories that you want Claude to be able to access and modify. It’s set up to work for Desktop and Downloads, but you can add more paths as well.

You will also need Node.js on your computer for this to run properly. To verify you have Node installed, open the command line on your computer.

  • On macOS, open the Terminal from your Applications folder
  • On Windows, press Windows + R, type “cmd”, and press Enter

Once in the command line, verify you have Node installed by entering in the following command:

node --version

If you get an error saying “command not found” or “node is not recognized”, download Node from nodejs.org.

How does the configuration file work?

This configuration file tells Claude for Desktop which MCP servers to start up every time you start the application. In this case, we have added one server called “filesystem” that will use the Node npx command to install and run @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem. This server, described here, will let you access your file system in Claude for Desktop.

Command Privileges

Claude for Desktop will run the commands in the configuration file with the permissions of your user account, and access to your local files. Only add commands if you understand and trust the source.

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3. Restart Claude

After updating your configuration file, you need to restart Claude for Desktop.

Upon restarting, you should see a hammer icon in the bottom right corner of the input box:

After clicking on the hammer icon, you should see the tools that come with the Filesystem MCP Server:

If your server isn’t being picked up by Claude for Desktop, proceed to the Troubleshooting section for debugging tips.

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4. Try it out!

You can now talk to Claude and ask it about your filesystem. It should know when to call the relevant tools.

Things you might try asking Claude:

  • Can you write a poem and save it to my desktop?
  • What are some work-related files in my downloads folder?
  • Can you take all the images on my desktop and move them to a new folder called “Images”?

As needed, Claude will call the relevant tools and seek your approval before taking an action:

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Troubleshooting

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Next steps

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