FTP_MCP_CONFIG — Explicit config path; missing or invalid paths fail closed. / Chemin explicite de configuration ; tout chemin absent ou invalide est refusé.
FTP_MCP_LANG — Human text language: en (default) or fr. / Langue du texte : en (défaut) ou fr.
Claude Code ไม่มีลิงก์ติดตั้งสำหรับคำสั่งแบบโลคัล ให้คัดลอกคำสั่งด้านล่างแล้วรันในเทอร์มินัล
Give Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, Trae, Antigravity, or any
MCP client a focused way to list, read, upload, download, and deploy files on
your own FTP, FTPS, and SFTP servers.
The stdio server implements MCP revision 2026-07-28 through the stable
modular TypeScript SDK v2 and retains the SDK's legacy negotiation path for
older MCP clients.
FTP/FTPS/SFTP deployment · Déploiement FTP/FTPS/SFTP. Local confinement / Confinement local.
Purpose-built deployment controls keep credentials out of tool responses,
support read-only servers and dry runs, and limit local file access with
localRoot. The repository is covered by an extensive end-to-end suite that
runs against local FTP and SFTP servers. There is no telemetry.
Availability: version 0.3.2 is published on
npm and the
Official MCP Registry.
Use npx -y [email protected] for that version. The
GitHub release
is a separate source distribution; main can include later changes.
Registry visibility establishes availability, not locked dependency resolution
or qualification of a different commit. See the release guide.
Deployment modes: the ten base tools provide controlled transfers and dry runs.
Enabling stateDir adds four durable tools with MCP confirmation, explicit resume
and conservative rollback of acknowledged changes. These guarantees belong to
the optional durable workflow; legacy ftp_deploy has no transaction or rollback.
Explore the current and target architecture diagrams and illustrative scenarios
in the bilingual interactive HTML guide.
The guide and its
English / French
build instructions are in the repository, outside the npm package. After
cloning, open site/index.html locally and use its language selector.
The visual direction was explored with ChatGPT Image; the final README assets
are rendered deterministically. Their
provenance and exact prompts
document their illustrative role; they are not a certification.
First source install
Install a supported Node.js version: 22, 24 or 26 (minimum: 22).
Run git clone https://github.com/alebgl77/ftp-deploy-mcp.git, then
cd ftp-deploy-mcp.
Run npm ci --omit=dev --ignore-scripts.
Run npm run setup, then edit the generated server config: set an absolute
localRoot, replace credentials, and configure the SFTP host-key pin or the
FTP/FTPS safety acknowledgments described below.
Windows users can run install.cmd and macOS/Linux users can run
./install.sh instead of steps 3–4. Review every generated server entry before
the first connection.
For a tagged version, check out that exact tag before installing. npm ci uses
the sole authoritative package-lock.json, with six exact direct pins and the
reviewed graph. Keep it with the sources. --ignore-scripts disables automatic
dependency lifecycle scripts; setup is a separate, explicit action.
Once published, the v0.3.2 source installation asset is named
ftp-deploy-mcp-0.3.2-source.tar.gz: 90 files, including that lockfile. Verify
its publication and checksums before extracting it in a fresh directory:
tar --ignore-zeros -xzf ftp-deploy-mcp-0.3.2-source.tar.gz
cd package
npm ci --omit=dev --ignore-scripts
node src/index.js setup
This installation archive excludes repository tests and maintainer scripts;
GitHub's automatic source ZIP/tar contains the complete repository. The separate
npm .tgz contains 89 files without a lockfile and follows npm dependency
resolution. It provides no locked-install guarantee. See the
release guide for verification and limits.
realpath/lstat checks refuse symlink components and keep operations below root. A malicious or changing server can still create a race between validation and use.
Preferred. Pin a fingerprint verified out of band.
FTPS
Encrypted when certificate verification succeeds. insecureTLS: true also requires allowInsecure: true and disables MITM protection.
A client-side sub-root cannot be a reliable anti-symlink jail. root other than / is refused unless allowUnsafeRemoteRoot: true.
Use a dedicated, server-side chrooted account whose visible root is /.
FTP
Plaintext. Refused unless allowInsecure: true accepts interception and credential exposure.
Same limitation as FTPS: the real boundary is the server account/chroot, not lexical client path checks.
Legacy-only, on a trusted network, with a dedicated chrooted account.
All three protocols also enforce localRoot for ftp_upload, ftp_deploy,
and ftp_download. This limits which local files the MCP server can access.
What you get
Ten focused MCP tools for server discovery, testing, listing, reading,
uploading, recursive deploys, downloading, creating directories, renaming,
and deleting.
Four additional durable-workflow tools when stateDir is configured;
confirmation and rollback follow the documented bounds.
Multiple named servers in one local configuration.
Gitignore-like deploy exclusions, dry-run, and per-server readOnly mode.
FileZilla import, an interactive setup wizard, and a read-only doctor
command.
Credentials loaded locally from the config, environment variables, or SSH
keys and never intentionally returned to the model.
Server configuration
An explicit configuration path is authoritative:
--config <path>
FTP_MCP_CONFIG, when --config is absent
An empty, missing, unreadable, or invalid explicit configuration reports an
error without falling back to another file. The MCP tools remain available
to report the configuration problem. --config requires a path argument.
Without either selector, the first configuration found wins:
./ftp-servers.json
~/.ftp-mcp/servers.json
The teaching example below is JSON with comments. Real configuration files
must be strict JSON; start from
ftp-servers.example.json.
The illustrative labels above show the shape but are not valid pins. Each real
entry is exactly SHA256: plus 43 characters of unpadded base64.
Field reference
Field
Applies to
Meaning
stateDir
top level
Optional absolute, normalized durable-state directory, canonically disjoint from every localRoot. Enabling it advertises the four durable workflow tools.
requirePlan
top level
With stateDir, defaults to true. Blocks legacy remote mutators except ftp_deploy dry runs; false retains them under the same persistent alias lock.
stateLimits
top level
Optional strict durable quotas for state, backups, plans, operations, plan files/bytes, journal bytes/events, and backup files.
protocol
all
Required: ftp, ftps, or sftp.
host / port / user
all
Connection endpoint and account. Default ports are 21, 990 for implicit FTPS, and 22 for SFTP.
password
all
Password or ${ENV:NAME} placeholder.
privateKeyPath / passphrase
SFTP
SSH private key path and optional passphrase. A leading ~ is expanded. These authenticate the user; they do not verify the server.
localRoot
all
Required for upload, deploy, and download. Must resolve to an existing absolute local directory; a leading ~ is supported. Relative and symlink/junction escapes are refused. Relative tool paths resolve inside it, and absolute tool paths must still remain inside it.
root
all
Remote root, default /. Tool paths are resolved below it. SFTP performs server-side realpath/lstat checks. FTP/FTPS need a server-side chroot for a trustworthy boundary.
hostKeySha256
SFTP
Required fingerprint string or non-empty array of pins. Format: SHA256:<43-character unpadded base64>. Cannot be combined with allowUnknownHostKey.
allowUnknownHostKey
SFTP
Emergency compatibility override. true accepts an unverified server identity and visibly warns on results.
readOnly
all
Blocks upload, deploy, mkdir, rename, and delete. A deploy dry run remains available.
operationTimeoutMs
all
Tool deadline including queue and connection time, default 120000 ms. Integer from 100 to 3600000. Native transport timeouts also apply.
maxTransferBytes
all
Maximum actual bytes per file, default 268435456 (256 MiB), maximum 1099511627776 (1 TiB). Positive safe integer.
maxDeployFiles
all
Maximum selected files per deploy, default 10000, maximum 100000. Positive safe integer; does not bound the full directory scan.
maxScanEntries
all
Visited local entries per deploy, including the root, excluded entries and links. Default 100000, maximum 1000000; positive safe integer.
maxScanDepth
all
Inclusive directory depth below the root (depth 0). Default 64, maximum 256; positive safe integer.
maxDeployBytes
all
Maximum cumulative source bytes per deploy, default 1073741824 (1 GiB), maximum 1099511627776 (1 TiB). Failed attempts retain their reservation.
Explicitly accepts plaintext FTP or unverified FTPS. It does not make the connection secure.
allowUnsafeRemoteRoot
FTP/FTPS
Allows a root other than / despite the unresolved symlink-escape risk. Use only when the server-side account boundary is understood.
Any string can contain ${ENV:VARIABLE_NAME}. Missing variables produce a
named configuration error.
Verify an SFTP fingerprint out of band
Do not trust a fingerprint obtained only through the connection you are about
to verify.
Obtain the SHA-256 host-key fingerprint from the hosting provider's
authenticated control panel or support channel, or from an administrator
through a separately authenticated channel.
If you administer the host, use its trusted console to run a command such as
ssh-keygen -lf /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub -E sha256.
Compare the complete SHA256:... value before putting it in
hostKeySha256. ssh-keyscan may collect a candidate key, but by itself it
does not authenticate that key.
For rotation, verify the new fingerprint out of band, temporarily configure
both old and new pins, rotate the server key, confirm connections use the
expected key, then remove the old pin. Do not use allowUnknownHostKey as a
rotation shortcut.
Tool reference
All remote path arguments are relative to the configured remote root. The
server parameter is optional when defaultServer is set or only one server
exists.
Tool
Main parameters
Purpose
ftp_list_servers
none
Show server metadata and active safety warnings, never passwords.
ftp_test
server?
Connect and list the visible root.
ftp_list
server?, path?, limit?, offset?
List a remote directory. limit defaults to 50 (1–200); offset defaults to 0.
Publish an immutable, expiring durable plan. Available only with stateDir.
ftp_apply_deploy
plan_id, idempotency_key, resume?
Confirm, associate, and explicitly resume a durable apply.
ftp_deploy_status
exactly one of plan_id / operation_id, offset?, limit?, if_journal_seq?
Read a lock-free, paginated durable snapshot without network access or state writes.
ftp_rollback_deploy
operation_id, resume?
Confirm and explicitly resume conservative rollback of durably acknowledged files.
Durable workflow guarantees
The durable tools require the official MCP input_required confirmation flow;
there is no boolean fallback. Signed request state binds the session, method,
plan digest, operation, idempotency-key hash, resume choice, journal sequence,
and expiry. Declined, invalid, expired, or unsupported interaction has no remote
effect. Association alone is status-only; any nonterminal remote mutation
requires resume:true.
The guarantee level is observable_state_reconciled: per-file replacement is
server-dependent, multi-file atomicity and exactly-once execution are false,
and rollback covers only durably acknowledged files. SFTP supports replacement
plus new files under existing canonical parents; FTP/FTPS supports replacement
of existing regular files only. Durable execution never creates parents, purges
remote extras, automatically rolls back, or rolls back SATISFIED_UNOWNED.
Cooperating processes sharing one canonical stateDir serialize the exact
server alias before adapter construction. This is not a distributed remote lock
and does not coordinate different aliases or state directories. Overlapping
writable aliases, alias renames, mixed-binary upgrades, and a process killed
while holding a persistent lock require operator care: quiesce upgrades and
recover stale locks offline. External writers and ABA changes remain outside
the observable identity guarantee.
Verified staged promotion
Uploads and deploys write to an unpredictable sibling temporary, verify its
actual byte count and SHA256 against the local source, then promote it with one
rename. A verification or rename failure never triggers deletion of the final
target or a direct-overwrite fallback. Downloads verify an exclusive local
temporary, synchronize and close it, then promote the complete file. The
default overwrite:false uses a hard link to avoid clobbering a file that
appeared meanwhile; filesystems without hard-link support fail closed.
Local and SFTP replacements preserve an existing regular target's permission
bits (0777); FTP/FTPS cannot portably preserve permissions, so account creation
defaults, umask and ACL policy need to suit the destination. Rename behavior
depends on the server and filesystem. Legacy upload/deploy does not promise
universal atomic replacement, a site transaction, or rollback. Readback adds network traffic.
See transfer guarantees, limits and cleanup.
Execution, cancellation, and contention
Within one Node process, upload, deploy, mkdir, rename, and delete run in FIFO
order for the same normalized protocol, hostname, port, and username. Server
aliases and roots share that lock. Downloads serialize by canonical local
destination, including across servers. Read-only remote operations can overlap.
MCP cancellation and deadlines close active transports and stop subsequent
deploy files. Errors identify CANCELLED or TIMEOUT; TARGET_BUSY indicates
waiting for another operation. A timed-out call can return before an underlying
operation settles, but its lock remains owned until settlement and cleanup.
No uncertain mutation is retried automatically. Inspect partial remote/local
state before retrying; legacy mutation calls are not transactional deployment
and provide no rollback.
Internal preparation is single-use and limited to 10 seconds without extending
the overall operation deadline. Admission remains held until the actual work
and cleanup settle. A prepared context is released once, including when it
arrives after cancellation; the handler is not called after preparation is
cancelled or expires. Preparation callbacks themselves may act. Durable tools
use the same settlement discipline. See the
resource limits.
Progress notifications are sent only when the caller supplies a progress
token, with increasing counters and no paths or credential text. Locks do not
coordinate other Node processes, DNS aliases, other accounts, or external
clients on the same host.
Response compatibility, pagination, and annotations
ftp_list returns one page instead of an unbounded directory listing. Its
successful response includes total, count, offset, limit, has_more,
and next_offset pagination fields. For example, a request with
{"server":"prod","path":"/assets","limit":2,"offset":2} may include the
following intentionally non-exhaustive excerpt. It omits the required
top-level server, path, and security_warning fields and the required
per-entry size_bytes and modified_at fields:
The existing human-readable content text is retained for compatibility.
On success, every tool except ftp_read also advertises an MCP
outputSchema and returns matching structuredContent; ftp_read remains a
bounded text-only tool on success. Each of the nine structured schemas accepts
either its strict success shape or a strict {error} envelope. Tool execution
errors return isError: true with localized text and structured code, request UUID,
effect observations and safe-retry guidance. Unknown tools remain protocol errors.
See the error contract.
The process admits at most 64 tool calls, including workers still cleaning up
after cancellation. Excess calls return CAPACITY_LIMIT. Local deployment scans
are asynchronous and separately bounded; see resource limits
for exact counting, SCAN_LIMIT and corrected custom exclusion behavior.
All tools publish MCP annotations describing read-only, destructive,
idempotent, and open-world behavior. These annotations are client hints, not a
security boundary; enforce access with server credentials, readOnly,
localRoot, and the protocol controls described above. ftp_deploy structured
results contain a summary and bounded samples, not exhaustive file lists.
ftp_deploy is not a transaction. If one or more transfers fail, the tool
returns an MCP error with a partial-deployment summary; files already promoted
before the failure are not rolled back.
Default deploy exclusions include node_modules, .git, environment files,
logs, OS metadata, ftp-servers.json, and .ftp-mcp content at any depth.
The reserved .ftp-mcp-*.tmp basename is always excluded, even if an explicit
include pattern matches it, so deploy cannot select a partial download temporary.
Client setup
npm run setup detects supported clients, creates timestamped backups before
changing existing client configuration, and prints a block for UI-only clients.
To wire a client manually, replace the path below with the absolute path to
this checkout:
Common locations include .mcp.json for Claude Code,
~/.cursor/mcp.json for Cursor, and
~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json for Windsurf. Claude Desktop and other
clients accept the same command/arguments structure through their MCP settings.
The published npm package can instead be launched with
npx -y [email protected]. Verify the exact version before updating;
pinning it does not also freeze npm's transitive dependency resolution.
FileZilla import and diagnostics
node src/index.js import-filezilla --file /path/sitemanager.xml --out ./ftp-servers.json
npm run doctor
Imported passwords may be decoded into plaintext. Keep the output outside
version control, restrict its permissions, add localRoot, and review every
insecure-transport or FTP/FTPS remote-root warning before connecting.
doctor is read-only and reports configuration and client wiring without
printing passwords.
Migrating from v0.1 to v0.2
The availability links above identify published version 0.3.2.
The migration steps below describe the security changes introduced after v0.1;
they do not require republishing or moving an existing release tag.
Add an absolute localRoot to every server used by upload, deploy, or
download.
For every SFTP server, add an out-of-band-verified hostKeySha256. Use
allowUnknownHostKey: true only as a temporary, explicit risk acceptance;
do not configure both fields.
For FTP/FTPS, prefer a dedicated server-side chroot whose visible root is
/ and set root to /. A non-root client path now requires
allowUnsafeRemoteRoot: true and remains unsafe against server-side
symlinks.
Treat a failed ftp_deploy as a partial deployment: inspect its summary and
reconcile the remote tree before retrying.
Re-run npm run setup or update the MCP client command to this checkout,
then run npm run doctor and a dry run.
Atomic replacement for newly written sensitive configuration is checked by the
release tests; a version number alone does not establish that guarantee. See
docs/RELEASE.md for the qualification and publication steps.
Security and limitations
The strongest FTP/FTPS boundary is the server's own account isolation or
chroot. Client-side normalization rejects obvious traversal, but FTP lacks
portable REALPATH/LSTAT primitives and cannot prove that a server-side
symlink stays inside a configured sub-root.
SFTP verifies the host pin and rejects symlink components using
realpath/lstat. A server controlled by an attacker can still change
filesystem state between checks and operations.
readOnly reduces accidental writes through this MCP server; it is not a
substitute for read-only credentials enforced by the remote server.
FTP, insecureTLS, allowUnknownHostKey, and
allowUnsafeRemoteRoot are explicit risk acceptances, not security features.
npm test
npm run eval:scripted
node src/index.js --version
node src/index.js --help
The test suite uses local FTP and SFTP servers and does not require an external
network. Contributions are welcome; see
CONTRIBUTING.md. Maintainers should use the
release guide. A reproducible, externally hosted read-only
agent evaluation is documented in evaluations/README.md.
From a source checkout, npm run eval:scripted runs 43 cases in both languages
through the real SDK client and handlers, with an in-memory remote adapter:
86 scripted server-conformance results. See the
scripted conformance guide for reports and limits;
this command does not evaluate a model or replace the separate real-transport tests.