Everything File Search

Quick start

/plugin marketplace add elis132/everything-mcp
/plugin install everything-mcp@everything-mcp

That's it for Claude Code - the plugin bundles the MCP server and a skill that teaches the query syntax. For every other client, see Installation below.

Why this one

Performance

es.exe (Everything's real-time NTFS index) vs. a naive filesystem walk, same query:

• everything-mcp: 220 ms avg (5 runs)
• Naive walk of C:\: 66,539 ms
• ~300x faster

@'
import os, subprocess, time, statistics

ES = os.path.expandvars(r"%LOCALAPPDATA%\Everything\es.exe")
QUERY = "everything.exe"

es_runs = []
for _ in range(5):
    t0 = time.perf_counter()
    subprocess.run([ES, "-n", "100", QUERY], capture_output=True, text=True)
    es_runs.append((time.perf_counter() - t0) * 1000)

t0 = time.perf_counter()
matches = []
for dirpath, _, filenames in os.walk(r"C:\\"):
    for name in filenames:
        if name.lower() == QUERY:
            matches.append(os.path.join(dirpath, name))
walk_ms = (time.perf_counter() - t0) * 1000

es_avg = statistics.mean(es_runs)
print("ES avg ms:", round(es_avg, 2))
print("Walk ms:", round(walk_ms, 2))
print("Speedup x:", round(walk_ms / es_avg, 1))
print("Matches:", len(matches))
'@ | python -

Installation

Prerequisites

1. Windows with Everything installed and running
2. es.exe (Everything's command-line interface) - included with Everything 1.5 alpha, or install separately:
   • winget install voidtools.Everything.Cli
   • scoop install everything-cli
   • choco install es
   • or download from github.com/voidtools/es and place it in your PATH
3. Python 3.10+ or uv

Run the server

uvx everything-mcp          # recommended, no install needed
pip install everything-mcp  # or via pip

From source:

git clone https://github.com/elis132/everything-mcp.git
cd everything-mcp && pip install -e ".[dev]"

Add it to your client

Every client below uses the same MCP server definition:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "everything": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["everything-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

{ "mcpServers": { "everything": { "command": "everything-mcp" } } }

Environment variables (optional)

Everything MCP auto-detects your setup, but you can override:

Only set EVERYTHING_INSTANCE if you explicitly configured a named instance in Everything (Tools → Options → General → Instance). Most installs - including most Everything 1.5 installs - run on the default instance; setting this unnecessarily breaks the connection. If in doubt, leave it out.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "everything": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["everything-mcp"],
      "env": { "EVERYTHING_INSTANCE": "1.5a" }
    }
  }
}

Tools

1. everything_search - the workhorse

Query syntax:

*.py                          all Python files
ext:py;js;ts                  multiple extensions
ext:py path:C:\Projects       Python files under a path
size:>10mb                    larger than 10 MB
size:1kb..1mb                 between 1 KB and 1 MB
dm:today / dm:last7days       modified today / in the last 7 days
path:D:\Photos dc:2024        created in 2024 (slow function, see below)
"exact name.txt"              exact filename match
project1 | project2           OR search
!node_modules                 exclude a term
ext:py path:C:\proj content:TODO   files containing TODO (slow function, see below)
regex:^test_.*\.py$           regex search
parent:src ext:py             files directly inside 'src' folders
dupe:  /  empty:               duplicate filenames / empty folders

Slow functions. content:, width:/height:, music tags (artist:, album:, ...) and, unless their property is indexed (Everything > Tools > Options > Indexes), dc:, da: and attrib: (and dm:/size: if you turned their indexing off) make Everything read every candidate file from disk - and Everything answers no other search until it is done. On Everything 1.4 the server therefore runs these terms last and only when the rest of the query narrows the candidates enough (1,000 files and 100 MB for content:; 1,000 files for image and tag functions; 30,000 for dates, attributes and sizes). Otherwise it refuses and reports the candidate count, so add path:, ext: or a name.

2. everything_search_by_type - category search

Categories: audio, video, image, document, code, archive, executable, font, 3d, data

Parameters: file_type (required), query, path, max_results, sort

3. everything_find_recent - what changed?

Periods: 1min … 12hours, today, yesterday, 1day … 1year

Parameters: period (default 1hour), path, extensions, query, max_results

4. everything_file_details - deep inspection

Parameters: paths (required, 1-20), preview_lines (0-200)

Returns full metadata; for directories, item count and listing; for text files with a preview, the first N lines.

5. everything_count_stats - quick analytics

Parameters: query (required), include_size (default true), breakdown_by_extension

Count and size stats without listing every file - check scope before a big search.

Examples

Troubleshooting

"es.exe not found" - Install Everything and es.exe, or set EVERYTHING_ES_PATH.

"Everything IPC window not found" - Make sure Everything is running (check the system tray). If you set EVERYTHING_INSTANCE, try removing it - most installs don't need it. Everything Lite doesn't support IPC.

No results for valid queries - Confirm Everything's index has finished building, try the same query in Everything's GUI, and check the drive/path is included in Everything's index settings.

Debugging:

everything-mcp 2>everything-mcp.log                        # server logs
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uvx everything-mcp      # MCP Inspector

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"   # install with dev dependencies
pytest                    # run tests
ruff check src/ tests/    # lint

Contributions welcome - see CLAUDE.md for the architecture and design decisions. Areas of interest: direct named-pipe IPC, Everything SDK3 for 1.5, content search, file-watching, bookmark/tag support.

License

MIT - see LICENSE

Acknowledgments

voidtools for Everything, Anthropic for the Model Context Protocol, and the MCP community.