Claude Filesystem connectorWhat Claude can do on your computer with Filesystem.
The Claude Filesystem connector exposes 14 tools: 10 read and 4 write. Claude browses your folders, reads your files, and creates, edits or moves them, without ever leaving the directories you allowed. It is a desktop extension published by Anthropic.
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What the Claude Filesystem connector changes
Without a connector, you drag every file into the chat. With Filesystem, Claude fetches what it needs from your computer on its own, inside the folders you open to it, and can save its output there too. It is Anthropic's desktop extension, built on an open-source package from the protocol's maintainers.
Clean up a downloads folder. Claude takes stock with list_directory_with_sizes, suggests a structure, creates subfolders through create_directory and files everything away using move_file.
Track down a lost note. You remember a meeting notes file, not where you saved it. Claude runs search_files across your work folder, then opens the right one with read_text_file.
Fix a document without rewriting it. To swap a phrase throughout a long text, Claude goes through edit_file, which can show a preview of the changes before applying them.
What it will not do: step outside the allowed folders, reach the internet, or delete a file, since no deletion tool is described. Nothing runs on its own either: Claude only acts while it answers you. Other platforms covered on the site are on the Integrations hub. It cannot read a file stored outside those folders either, even if you give it the exact path.
Five words before you connect
The Claude vocabulary around this connector, in a minute.
- Connector
- The link you set up once between Claude and a service you already use, so Claude can work with it while it answers you.
- Tool
- One named capability the connector opens to Claude. Claude picks which ones to call on its own, and the directory sheet lists them.
- Allowed directory
- A folder on your machine that you open to the extension. Claude reads and writes there and nowhere else on your disk.
- Approval
- The confirmation Claude waits for before an action that changes an account, shown right in the conversation when it matters.
- MCP
- The shared standard connectors are built on. It is what lets an assistant like Claude talk to an outside service or tool.
Connect Filesystem to Claude in three steps
- 01
Open your connector list
Filesystem is a desktop extension, so it runs in Claude Desktop. In settings, go to Customize, then Connectors, and look for it. On a Team or Enterprise workspace, an Owner or Primary Owner enables it for members first.
- 02
Turn the extension on
Click Connect on its row. There is no online account to link: the extension works on the files on your machine, and only inside folders that have been explicitly opened to it.
- 03
Pick the folders it can use
The package documentation says the extension needs at least one allowed directory to run, and every operation stays inside those directories, whether they are set at launch or supplied by the app.
The 14 tools, sorted by what they do
Filesystem gives Claude 14 tools: 10 that read your account, 4 that change something in it.
All fourteen are described by the open-source package behind the extension: thirteen in its documentation, and read_file in its source code. Names stay exactly as Claude shows them.
- 10 read
- 4 write
What Claude reads (10)
10 toolsTen tools that read or explore your folders without changing anything.
read_file
The older form of read_text_file, kept for compatibility: the official server code describes it as deprecated, returns a file's full contents as text, and flags it as read-only. The package documentation does not list it.
read_text_file
Returns a file's full contents as text, or just its first or last lines. The file is always treated as plain text, whatever its extension says.
read_media_file
Opens an image, audio or other file and hands it to Claude along with its type. Images and sound arrive as such; other formats come through as a raw attachment.
read_multiple_files
Loads multiple files in one call. If one of them cannot be read, the rest still come through, so a single failure does not sink the whole batch.
list_directory
Shows what a folder contains, marking files apart from subfolders.
list_directory_with_sizes
The same inventory as a plain listing, plus the size of each file, sorting by name or size, and totals for files, folders and combined size at the end.
directory_tree
Returns the full tree of a folder and its subfolders, with the option to exclude certain patterns. Claude gets a whole project's structure in one go.
search_files
Walks through a folder and its subfolders looking for names that match, or do not match, a pattern, then returns the full paths it found. Exclusion patterns keep irrelevant folders out of the results.
get_file_info
Gives the identity card of a file or folder: its size, its timestamps, its type and its permissions. Claude knows what it is dealing with before opening anything.
list_allowed_directories
Lists the directories the extension can currently reach. It is the most direct way to check exactly how far Claude's reach goes on your machine.
What Claude changes (4)
4 toolsFour tools that create, overwrite, edit or move. No source describes their confirmation, so the general rule below applies.
write_file
Approval: see the ruleCreates a new file or replaces an existing one entirely with the content supplied. The documentation urges caution, since the previous content is gone afterwards.
edit_file
Approval: see the ruleApplies targeted replacements inside a file, keeps the indentation, and returns a diff of what changed. A dry-run mode shows the result before anything is applied.
create_directory
Approval: see the ruleCreates a directory, along with any missing parent folders. If the folder already exists, the call succeeds and does nothing more.
move_file
Approval: see the ruleMoves or renames a file or folder. The call fails if the destination already exists, which stops a file from being overwritten along the way.
What Claude asks before it acts
By default, Claude stops and asks for your go-ahead before each action it takes on an account for you.
For the four tools that create, overwrite, edit or move files, no source describes a dedicated confirmation, so the default rule covers them. The package documentation tags every tool as read-only, write-capable or destructive so the app can tell them apart, without saying how Claude Desktop uses those tags. On Team and Enterprise, owners can restrict a connector for the whole organization. And Claude only sees the folders you opened.
Which plans include it
No official source publishes plan availability connector by connector, and none of the 819 directory sheets shows it. It is a real gap in the catalog.
What is published is the general rule: desktop extensions install on Claude Desktop. On Team and Enterprise, an Owner or Primary Owner turns the connector on for the organization before members connect. For this one's current status, check its sheet in the official directory. Worth knowing: only the open-source package documents this connector, and no Claude help article covers it.
Where this connector stops
A connector is not an automation. Claude calls these tools while it answers you, and nothing fires when a file lands in a folder.
The package documentation states that every tool works only on the local disk, inside the allowed directories, and never reaches the open internet. The directory badge is not a security audit, and Anthropic notes on every sheet that it does not vouch for how exposed tools behave, even here where it is the publisher. Per the package documentation, the allowed directories are set either when the server starts or by the app itself, which can replace them while it runs, without a restart.
Need help connecting Filesystem to Claude?
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