alxspiker mcp server ftp

This Model Context Protocol (MCP) server provides file-management tools for FTP, FTPS, and SFTP servers. It supports directory listing, binary-safe downloads/uploads, text edits, appends, renames/moves, directory creation, and deletion.

• FTP — traditional FTP, normally on port 21.
• FTPS — FTP secured with TLS. Use FTP_PROTOCOL=ftp and FTP_SECURE=true.
• SFTP — SSH File Transfer Protocol, normally on port 22. SFTP is a different protocol from FTPS and is already encrypted by SSH, so FTP_SECURE does not apply to it.

• List files and directories
• Download and upload text or binary files
• Edit exact text in remote files
• Append to files
• Rename or move files/directories
• Create and delete directories
• FTP, FTPS, and SFTP support
• SFTP password or SSH private-key authentication
• Optional 1Password CLI private-key resolution
• AES-256-GCM encrypted credential values
• OS-keychain support for the encryption key

npx -y @smithery/cli install alxspikers-team/mcp-server-ftp --client claude

• Node.js 18.14 or newer
• An MCP-compatible client such as Claude Desktop

The server is published as mcp-server-ftp:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ftp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-server-ftp"],
      "env": {
        "FTP_HOST": "ftp.example.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

git clone https://github.com/alxspiker/mcp-server-ftp.git
cd mcp-server-ftp
npm install
npm run build

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ftp-server": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-server-ftp/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "FTP_HOST": "ftp.example.com",
        "FTP_PORT": "21",
        "FTP_PROTOCOL": "ftp",
        "FTP_USER": "your-username",
        "FTP_PASSWORD": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

FTPS uses the normal FTP client with TLS enabled:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ftp-server": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-server-ftp/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "FTP_HOST": "ftps.example.com",
        "FTP_PORT": "21",
        "FTP_PROTOCOL": "ftp",
        "FTP_SECURE": "true",
        "FTP_USER": "your-username",
        "FTP_PASSWORD": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

FTP_SECURE is only meaningful when FTP_PROTOCOL=ftp. It is ignored by the SFTP path because SFTP is already encrypted over SSH.

For a trusted FTPS server with a self-signed certificate, add "FTP_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED": "false" to the FTPS env object. This keeps TLS encryption but disables certificate and hostname verification, so use it only when you independently trust the server and network. Verification stays enabled by default. This setting requires FTP_SECURE=true and FTP_PROTOCOL=ftp.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ftp-server": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-server-ftp/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "FTP_HOST": "sftp.example.com",
        "FTP_PORT": "22",
        "FTP_PROTOCOL": "sftp",
        "FTP_USER": "your-username",
        "FTP_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH": "~/.ssh/id_ed25519",
        "FTP_PASSPHRASE": "your-key-passphrase"
      }
    }
  }
}

SFTP supports private-key and password authentication.

The server looks for a private key in this order:

1. FTP_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH, if set
2. ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
3. ~/.ssh/id_rsa
4. ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa

If no key is found, FTP_PASSWORD is used.

FTP_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH may contain a 1Password secret reference instead of a filesystem path:

"FTP_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH": "op://Private/my-server/private key"

Requirements:

• The 1Password CLI (op) must be installed and available on PATH.
• The CLI must already be able to authenticate, either through the desktop-app integration or OP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN.

The key is resolved lazily, cached in memory for the process, and is not written to disk.

If the SSH server rejects 1Password's default exported key format, request OpenSSH format:

"FTP_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH": "op://Private/my-server/private key?ssh-format=openssh"

FTP_USER, FTP_PASSWORD, and FTP_PASSPHRASE may be stored as AES-256-GCM encrypted values using the enc: format.

node -e "console.log(require('crypto').randomBytes(32).toString('hex'))"

npm run build
npm run store-key -- <your-64-char-hex-key>

The server loads the key from macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, or Linux Secret Service when available.

Alternatively, set the key globally in the process environment:

export FTP_ENCRYPTION_KEY=<your-64-char-hex-key>

Do not place FTP_ENCRYPTION_KEY beside the encrypted credentials in the same local MCP config unless your deployment environment gives you no separate secret-storage mechanism.

npm run build
FTP_ENCRYPTION_KEY=<your-64-char-hex-key> npm run encrypt-env -- <plaintext-value>

If the key is already available from the OS keychain or shell environment:

npm run encrypt-env -- <plaintext-value>

Tool calls return machine-readable structuredContent, and all nine tools advertise output schemas. Version 1.2.2 introduced a compatibility shim that ensures advertised schemas use the JSON Schema 2020-12 dialect required by current MCP clients.

• Prefer SFTP when available; it uses SSH encryption and key authentication without FTPS certificate configuration.
• Use FTP_SECURE=true only for FTPS servers using the FTP protocol path.
• Use credential encryption when a client configuration would otherwise contain plaintext credentials.
• FTP and SFTP transfers may use short-lived local temporary files for upload/download/append operations; those files are removed during cleanup after each operation.

1. Confirm Node.js 18.14 or newer and npm are installed.
2. Run npm install.
3. Run npm run build or npx tsc.
4. Start the compiled server with node build/index.js.

MIT