@shxiaj/everything-mcp

MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for Everything — the lightning-fast Windows file search engine.

Forked and extended from everythingsdk-mcp.

Uses ffi-rs to call the Everything SDK natively and @modelcontextprotocol/sdk for the MCP server protocol.

Features

• Dual SDK support — Auto-detects Everything 1.5 (SDK v3) or 1.4 (SDK v2)
• Lightning-fast file search — Leverage Everything's native search capabilities
• Multiple tools — Search, version check, status, and file info
• Flexible configuration — Environment variable overrides for SDK paths

Prerequisites

• Windows (the Everything SDK is Windows-only)
• Everything 1.4+ installed and running (download)
• Node.js 18+ and pnpm

Installation

pnpm install
pnpm build

Usage

Running the MCP server

npx @shxiaj/everything-mcp

The server communicates via stdin/stdout (MCP stdio transport).

Configuring in Claude Desktop / VS Code Copilot

Add to your MCP client configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "@shxiaj/everything-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@shxiaj/everything-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Environment Variables

| Variable | Description | Default | |---|---|---| | EVERYTHING_SDK_VERSION | Force SDK version (v3 or v2) | Auto-detect | | EVERYTHING_SDK_DIR | Path to the Everything SDK v3 directory | ./everything_sdk3/dll | | EVERYTHING_DLL_PATH | Full path to the Everything SDK v3 DLL | $SDK_DIR/Everything3_x64.dll | | EVERYTHING_V2_SDK_DIR | Path to the Everything SDK v2 directory | ./Everything-SDK/dll | | EVERYTHING_V2_DLL_PATH | Full path to the Everything SDK v2 DLL | $V2_SDK_DIR/Everything64.dll | | EVERYTHING_IPC_PIPE_NAME | Override v3 IPC pipe name | Auto-probe |

Tools

everything_search

Search for files and folders using Everything search syntax.

Parameters:

• query (required) — Search query using Everything syntax
• maxResults — Max results (default: 50, max: 1000)
• offset — Zero-based offset for pagination
• matchCase — Case-sensitive search
• matchWholeWord — Match whole words only
• matchPath — Match against full path
• regex — Treat query as regex

Everything search syntax examples:

• *.txt — all .txt files
• foo bar — files containing both "foo" AND "bar"
• foo|bar — files containing "foo" OR "bar"
• ext:jpg size:>1mb — JPEGs larger than 1 MB
• folder:node_modules — folders named node_modules
• content:TODO — files containing "TODO" in their content
• datemodified:today — files modified today
• parent:C:\Projects — files under C:\Projects

everything_version

Get the version information of the running Everything instance.

everything_status

Check if Everything is running and its database is loaded.

everything_file_info

Get Windows file attributes and run count for a specific file path.

Parameters:

• path (required) — Full path to the file or folder

SDK Architecture

src/
├── index.ts              # MCP server entry point (tools, request handlers)
├── everything-client.ts  # EverythingClient + SdkProvider abstraction
├── ffi-bindings.ts       # Raw FFI bindings to Everything3_*.dll (SDK v3, Everything 1.5)
└── ffi-bindings-v14.ts   # Raw FFI bindings to Everything*.dll (SDK v2, Everything 1.4)

EverythingClient auto-detects the SDK version: tries v3 first, falls back to v2. Override with EVERYTHING_SDK_VERSION=v2 or v3 env var.

SDK v3 (Everything 1.5) vs SDK v2 (Everything 1.4)

| Aspect | SDK v3 (Everything 1.5) | SDK v2 (Everything 1.4) | |---|---|---| | DLL names | Everything3_x64.dll | Everything64.dll | | API prefix | Everything3_* | Everything_* | | Connection | Explicit ConnectW/DestroyClient handles | Implicit via IPC on QueryW | | State model | Per-client, per-search-state objects | Global mutable state | | Search exec | Search(client, state) returns result list | QueryW(TRUE) populates global results | | Result props | Must call AddSearchPropertyRequest first | Use SetRequestFlags bitmask | | File info | Direct GetFileAttributesW(client, path) | Requires a search with SetMatchPath(true) |

License

MIT