# Desktop Commander MCP

> Give Claude and other assistants terminal control, process management, file search and diff-based editing.

## Facts
- **Category:** [MCP Servers](https://agentsearchengine.app/category/mcp-servers)
- **Type:** MCP server
- **Pricing:** Open source
- **GitHub stars:** 9,713
- **Language:** TypeScript
- **License:** MIT
- **Last repo activity:** today (Sep 22, 2026)
- **Official site:** https://desktopcommander.app/
- **Source code:** https://github.com/wonderwhy-er/DesktopCommanderMCP
- **Listing on Agent Search Engine:** https://agentsearchengine.app/agents/desktop-commander-mcp
- **Data verified:** September 2026

## Best for
Doing hands-on development work from Claude Desktop or another chat client.

## Avoid if
You're not comfortable granting an AI broad terminal and filesystem access on your machine.

## About Desktop Commander MCP
Desktop Commander MCP lets an assistant execute long-running terminal commands, manage processes, search files and edit them with targeted search-and-replace, extending the reference filesystem server. It is aimed at doing development work from chat clients such as Claude Desktop using the host subscription rather than paying for API tokens, and can also be used from ChatGPT and Claude on the web.

## Connect to an MCP client
Launch command from the project's README: `npx -y @wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander@latest`

### Claude Code (Run in your terminal)

```shell
claude mcp add desktop-commander-mcp -- npx -y @wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander@latest
```

### Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json or .cursor/mcp.json)

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

### VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json)

```json
{
  "servers": {
    "desktop-commander-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander@latest"]
    }
  }
}
```

### Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json)

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

### Codex (~/.codex/config.toml)

```toml
[mcp_servers.desktop-commander-mcp]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "@wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander@latest"]
```

## Alternatives
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- [serena](https://agentsearchengine.app/agents/serena) — A powerful MCP toolkit for coding, providing semantic retrieval and editing capabilities - the IDE for your agent · Open source · SDK / library · 30k★ · Python · MIT · active today
- [MCP for Blender (blender-mcp)](https://agentsearchengine.app/agents/blender-mcp) — Connect Blender to Claude or any LLM client for prompt-driven 3D modelling and scene editing. · Open source · MCP server · 29k★ · Python · MIT · active 2 days ago
- [fastmcp](https://agentsearchengine.app/agents/fastmcp) — The fast, Pythonic way to build MCP servers and clients. · Open source · SDK / library · 28k★ · Python · Apache-2.0 · active today

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