file-systemsdeveloper-tools

Text Editor

by bhouston

Edit, view, and create text files with persistent state using our server, featuring tools like Adobe Acrobat DC PDF edit

Implements Claude's text editor tool as a server, enabling viewing, editing, and creating text files with persistent state across command calls.

github stars

35

Hash-based concurrency controlToken-efficient partial file accessMultiple encoding support

best for

  • / LLM-powered code editing and refactoring
  • / Automated text processing workflows
  • / Collaborative editing with conflict prevention
  • / Large file manipulation with minimal memory usage

capabilities

  • / Read specific line ranges from text files
  • / Edit files using line-based operations
  • / Handle multiple file patches atomically
  • / Detect and prevent concurrent editing conflicts
  • / Support multiple text encodings
  • / Access partial file contents to reduce tokens

what it does

Provides line-based text file editing with partial file access and concurrency control. Optimized for LLM tools to minimize token usage when reading and modifying files.

about

Text Editor is a community-built MCP server published by bhouston that provides AI assistants with tools and capabilities via the Model Context Protocol. Edit, view, and create text files with persistent state using our server, featuring tools like Adobe Acrobat DC PDF edit It is categorized under file systems, developer tools. This server exposes 1 tool that AI clients can invoke during conversations and coding sessions.

how to install

You can install Text Editor in your AI client of choice. Use the install panel on this page to get one-click setup for Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code, and other MCP-compatible clients. This server runs locally on your machine via the stdio transport.

license

MIT

Text Editor is released under the MIT license. This is a permissive open-source license, meaning you can freely use, modify, and distribute the software.

readme

Claude Text Editor MCP Server

npm version CI Status Test Coverage

<p align="center"> <img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/mcp/logo/dark.svg" alt="Model Context Protocol Logo" width="200"/> </p>

An open-source implementation of the Claude built-in text editor tool as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. This package provides the same functionality as Claude's built-in text editor tool, allowing you to view, edit, and create text files through a standardized API.

Features

  • Identical API to Claude's Text Editor: Implements the exact same interface as Claude's built-in text editor tool
  • MCP Server Implementation: Follows the Model Context Protocol standard for AI tool integration
  • File Operations:
    • View file contents with optional line range specification
    • Create new files
    • Replace text in existing files
    • Insert text at specific line numbers
    • Undo previous edits

Supported Claude Text Editor Versions

This package implements an equivalent tool to the built-in Claude text editor tool versions:

  • text_editor_20241022 (Claude 3.5 Sonnet)
  • text_editor_20250124 (Claude 3.7 Sonnet)

But using the tool name 'text_editor' to avoid name conflicts with built-in Claude tools.

Installation

# Install from npm
npm install mcp-server-text-editor

# Or with pnpm
pnpm add mcp-server-text-editor

Usage

Starting the Server

# Using npx
npx -y mcp-server-text-editor

# Or if installed globally
mcp-server-text-editor

Configuring in Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "textEditor": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-server-text-editor"]
    }
  }
}

Tool Commands

View

View the contents of a file or directory.

{
  "command": "view",
  "path": "/path/to/file.js",
  "view_range": [1, 10] // Optional: Show lines 1-10 only
}

Create

Create a new file with the specified content.

{
  "command": "create",
  "path": "/path/to/file.js",
  "file_text": "console.log('Hello, world!');"
}

String Replace

Replace text in a file.

{
  "command": "str_replace",
  "path": "/path/to/file.js",
  "old_str": "console.log('Hello, world!');",
  "new_str": "console.log('Hello, Claude!');"
}

Insert

Insert text at a specific line.

{
  "command": "insert",
  "path": "/path/to/file.js",
  "insert_line": 5,
  "new_str": "// This line was inserted by Claude"
}

Undo Edit

Revert the last edit made to a file.

{
  "command": "undo_edit",
  "path": "/path/to/file.js"
}

Development

Prerequisites

  • Node.js 18+
  • pnpm

Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/bhouston/mcp-server-text-editor.git
cd mcp-server-text-editor

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Build the project
pnpm build

Scripts

  • pnpm build: Build the TypeScript project
  • pnpm lint: Run ESLint with auto-fixing
  • pnpm format: Format code with Prettier
  • pnpm clean: Remove build artifacts
  • pnpm clean:all: Remove build artifacts and node_modules
  • pnpm test: Run tests
  • pnpm test:coverage: Run tests with coverage report

Testing

This project uses Vitest for testing.

To run the tests:

# Run all tests
pnpm test

# Run tests with coverage report
pnpm test:coverage

The test coverage report will be generated in the coverage directory.

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
  3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
  4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
  5. Open a Pull Request