Desktop Commander

listing.by

Run terminal commands, manage processes and edit files on your own machine from your AI chat.

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listing.install

listing.local.explain

npx -y @wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander@latest

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listing.about

Desktop Commander gives an AI assistant terminal control, file system search and diff-based file editing on your computer. It can run long-running commands with output streaming, interact with running processes such as SSH sessions or dev servers, list and kill processes, and run Python, Node.js or R code in memory. It also reads and writes Excel, PDF and DOCX files.

It runs locally over stdio as an npm package, started with npx and requiring Node.js. No API key is needed. The README says the safety guardrails are not a sandbox, and it describes a Docker install for isolation. A remote MCP option is also mentioned for ChatGPT and Claude web.

listing.can

Run terminal commands with streaming output and timeouts
Start and interact with long-running processes
List and kill processes
Read, write, move and list files and directories
Search files and file contents with ripgrep
Edit code with targeted text replacements or full rewrites
Read and edit Excel, PDF and DOCX files
Change server configuration without restarting

listing.tools

listing.notools.local

listing.prompts

Find every TODO comment in my project folder and list the files.
Run the test suite and tell me which tests fail.
Replace the old API URL in all config files in this repo.
Analyze the sales.csv file on my desktop and summarize it.

listing.setup.h

listing.setup.local

Claude Code

Run this in a terminal, in your project folder:

claude mcp add --transport stdio desktop-commander -- npx -y @wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander@latest

Start Claude Code and type /mcp. desktop-commander should show as connected.

Add --scope user to make it available in every project.

Claude Desktop

Open Settings → Developer → Edit Config. It opens claude_desktop_config.json. Add:

claude_desktop_config.json

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

Save the file and restart Claude Desktop.

Needs Node.js on your computer. The file lives in ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/ on macOS and %APPDATA%\Claude\ on Windows.

Cursor

Add to Cursor a11y.new_tab

Or add it by hand to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (all projects) or .cursor/mcp.json (this project):

mcp.json

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

Needs Node.js on your computer.

VS Code

Install in VS Code a11y.new_tab

Or from a terminal:

code --add-mcp '{"name":"desktop-commander","type":"stdio","command":"npx","args":["-y","@wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander@latest"]}'

Or commit it to the repo in .vscode/mcp.json:

.vscode/mcp.json

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

Needs Node.js on your computer.

Devin Desktop

Add it to ~/.config/devin/mcp_config.json (macOS and Linux) or %APPDATA%\devin\mcp_config.json (Windows):

mcp_config.json

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

Refresh the MCP server list in Cascade.

Devin Desktop is the new name for Windsurf.

Codex

codex mcp add desktop-commander -- npx -y @wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander@latest

Or edit ~/.codex/config.toml directly:

config.toml

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

Needs Node.js on your computer.

Gemini CLI

gemini mcp add desktop-commander npx -- -y @wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander@latest

This adds it to the current project. Add -s user to use it everywhere.

Any client

Most clients that start local servers accept this shape:

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

Zed puts servers under context_servers in its settings, with the same command, args and env fields.

Needs Node.js on your computer.

listing.faq

Can I paste mcp.tc/i/desktop-commander into my MCP client?

No. Desktop Commander runs on your own computer, started by your client, so it has no web address to connect to. The quick link is the page to share; the install command is npx -y @wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander@latest.

Does Desktop Commander need an API key?

No. It doesn't declare any keys or environment variables. It runs with your user account's permissions, so check what its tools can reach.

Is Desktop Commander a remote or a local server?

Local. Your client starts it as a process on your computer with npx -y @wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander@latest, which needs Node.js.

What can Desktop Commander do?

You can run terminal commands with streaming output and timeouts, start and interact with long-running processes and list and kill processes.

Which clients can use it?

Any client that starts local servers: Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Devin Desktop, Codex, Gemini CLI, Zed and others. claude.ai and ChatGPT only connect to remote servers.

Who wrote this page?

mcp.tc's robot read Desktop Commander's public metadata (its package and repository pages), and an AI model drafted the text from it. A person reviews anything the checks can't confirm. The text can still be wrong, so if you spot a mistake, use Report this listing on this page.

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