Quick start

/plugin marketplace add elis132/everything-mcp
/plugin install everything-mcp@everything-mcp

That's it for Claude Code - the plugin bundles the MCP server and a skill that teaches the query syntax. For every other client, see Installation below.

Why this one

Performance

es.exe (Everything's real-time NTFS index) vs. a naive filesystem walk, same query:

• everything-mcp: 220 ms avg (5 runs)
• Naive walk of C:\: 66,539 ms
• ~300x faster

@'
import os, subprocess, time, statistics

ES = os.path.expandvars(r"%LOCALAPPDATA%\Everything\es.exe")
QUERY = "everything.exe"

es_runs = []
for _ in range(5):
    t0 = time.perf_counter()
    subprocess.run([ES, "-n", "100", QUERY], capture_output=True, text=True)
    es_runs.append((time.perf_counter() - t0) * 1000)

t0 = time.perf_counter()
matches = []
for dirpath, _, filenames in os.walk(r"C:\\"):
    for name in filenames:
        if name.lower() == QUERY:
            matches.append(os.path.join(dirpath, name))
walk_ms = (time.perf_counter() - t0) * 1000

es_avg = statistics.mean(es_runs)
print("ES avg ms:", round(es_avg, 2))
print("Walk ms:", round(walk_ms, 2))
print("Speedup x:", round(walk_ms / es_avg, 1))
print("Matches:", len(matches))
'@ | python -

Installation

Prerequisites

1. Windows with Everything installed and running
2. es.exe (Everything's command-line interface) - included with Everything 1.5 alpha, or install separately:
   • winget install voidtools.Everything.Cli
   • scoop install everything-cli
   • choco install es
   • or download from github.com/voidtools/es and place it in your PATH
3. Python 3.10+ or uv

Run the server

uvx everything-mcp          # recommended, no install needed
pip install everything-mcp  # or via pip

From source:

git clone https://github.com/elis132/everything-mcp.git
cd everything-mcp && pip install -e ".[dev]"

Add it to your client

Every client below uses the same MCP server definition:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "everything": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["everything-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

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

Environment variables (optional)

Everything MCP auto-detects your setup, but you can override:

Only set EVERYTHING_INSTANCE if you explicitly configured a named instance in Everything (Tools → Options → General → Instance). Most installs - including most Everything 1.5 installs - run on the default instance; setting this unnecessarily breaks the connection. If in doubt, leave it out.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "everything": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["everything-mcp"],
      "env": { "EVERYTHING_INSTANCE": "1.5a" }
    }
  }
}

Tools

1. everything_search - the workhorse

Query syntax:

*.py                          all Python files
ext:py;js;ts                  multiple extensions
ext:py path:C:\Projects       Python files under a path
size:>10mb                    larger than 10 MB
size:1kb..1mb                 between 1 KB and 1 MB
dm:today / dm:last1week       modified today / in the last week
dc:2024                       created in 2024
"exact name.txt"              exact filename match
project1 | project2           OR search
!node_modules                 exclude a term
content:TODO                  files containing TODO (needs content indexing)
regex:^test_.*\.py$           regex search
parent:src ext:py             files directly inside 'src' folders
dupe:  /  empty:               duplicate filenames / empty folders

2. everything_search_by_type - category search

Categories: audio, video, image, document, code, archive, executable, font, 3d, data

Parameters: file_type (required), query, path, max_results, sort

3. everything_find_recent - what changed?

Periods: 1min … 12hours, today, yesterday, 1day … 1year

Parameters: period (default 1hour), path, extensions, query, max_results

4. everything_file_details - deep inspection

Parameters: paths (required, 1-20), preview_lines (0-200)

Returns full metadata; for directories, item count and listing; for text files with a preview, the first N lines.

5. everything_count_stats - quick analytics

Parameters: query (required), include_size (default true), breakdown_by_extension

Count and size stats without listing every file - check scope before a big search.

Examples

Troubleshooting

"es.exe not found" - Install Everything and es.exe, or set EVERYTHING_ES_PATH.

"Everything IPC window not found" - Make sure Everything is running (check the system tray). If you set EVERYTHING_INSTANCE, try removing it - most installs don't need it. Everything Lite doesn't support IPC.

No results for valid queries - Confirm Everything's index has finished building, try the same query in Everything's GUI, and check the drive/path is included in Everything's index settings.

Debugging:

everything-mcp 2>everything-mcp.log                        # server logs
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uvx everything-mcp      # MCP Inspector

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"   # install with dev dependencies
pytest                    # run tests
ruff check src/ tests/    # lint

Contributions welcome - see CLAUDE.md for the architecture and design decisions. Areas of interest: direct named-pipe IPC, Everything SDK3 for 1.5, content search, file-watching, bookmark/tag support.

License

MIT - see LICENSE

Acknowledgments

voidtools for Everything, Anthropic for the Model Context Protocol, and the MCP community.