Desktop Commander
Desktop Commander is an MCP server that adds developer tools to AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. MCP server for terminal commands, file operations, and process management. It has 9,943 GitHub stars, is released under the MIT license and runs locally with npx -y @wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander.
github.com/wonderwhy-er/DesktopCommanderMCP (opens in a new tab)
- Developer tools
- MIT
- Actively maintained
Install Desktop Commander
Generated from the server's MCP registry entry. Replace your-value with your own values.
Claude Desktop
{
"mcpServers": {
"desktop-commander": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander"
]
}
}
}Settings > Developer > Edit Config. macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\. Restart Claude Desktop afterwards.
Claude Code
claude mcp add --transport stdio desktop-commander -- npx -y @wonderwhy-er/desktop-commanderCursor
{
"mcpServers": {
"desktop-commander": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander"
]
}
}
}Project file; use ~/.cursor/mcp.json to enable it in every project.
VS Code
{
"servers": {
"desktop-commander": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander"
]
}
}
}Config formats checked against the official docs on Oct 7, 2026: modelcontextprotocol.io (opens in a new tab), code.claude.com (opens in a new tab), cursor.com (opens in a new tab), code.visualstudio.com (opens in a new tab).
About Desktop Commander
Work with code and text, run processes, and automate tasks, going far beyond other AI editors - while using host client subscriptions instead of API token costs.
- agent
- ai
- code-analysis
- code-generation
- mcp
- terminal-ai
- terminal-automation
- vibe-coding
- gemini-cli-extension
Similar MCP servers
More developer tools MCP servers
Gemini CLI
google-gemini/gemini-cli
An open-source AI agent that brings the power of Gemini directly into your terminal.
Developer toolsTypeScriptFront-End Checklist
thedaviddias/Front-End-Checklist
Review frontend code and live pages against 386 quality-gated web development rules.
Developer toolsMDXClaude Flow
ruvnet/ruflo
AI orchestration with hive-mind swarms, neural networks, and 87 MCP tools for enterprise dev.
Developer toolsTypeScriptCodebase Memory
DeusData/codebase-memory-mcp
Codebase knowledge graph for AI agents — 162 languages, sub-ms queries, 99% fewer tokens.
Developer toolsCBytedance Filesystem
bytedance/UI-TARS-desktop
MCP server for filesystem access.
Developer toolsTypeScriptGitHub
github/github-mcp-server
Connect AI assistants to GitHub - manage repos, issues, PRs, and workflows through natural language.
OfficialDeveloper toolsGo
What is Desktop Commander?
Desktop Commander is an MCP server that adds developer tools to AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. MCP server for terminal commands, file operations, and process management. It has 9,943 GitHub stars, is released under the MIT license and runs locally with npx -y @wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander. The source code is at github.com/wonderwhy-er/DesktopCommanderMCP.
How do I install the Desktop Commander MCP server?
Add the command npx -y @wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander to your MCP client: put it in claude_desktop_config.json for Claude Desktop, run claude mcp add for Claude Code, or add it to .cursor/mcp.json (Cursor) or .vscode/mcp.json (VS Code). The snippets on this page are ready to paste.
Is Desktop Commander free?
The server is open source under the MIT license, so running it is free. It does not declare any required API key.
Is Desktop Commander actively maintained?
The most recent commit was on Oct 7, 2026. The latest release is v0.2.52, published Sep 29, 2026. appsgit only lists MCP servers with a commit in the last six months and re-checks every server daily.