Pathgate

pathgate is a Python Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes a controlled filesystem interface to MCP clients such as Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, and inspector tools. The server only permits access to directories that are explicitly allow-listed at startup.

What it does

The server exposes:

• File resources via file://...
• Directory resources via directory://...
• Tools for reading, writing, listing, creating, deleting, moving, copying, searching, and inspecting files/directories
• Built-in prompts for directory analysis and file discovery

Security model

Access is restricted by allow-listed paths. At startup, the server resolves the supplied paths and only permits operations within those directories.

• Paths are checked with os.path.realpath() and prefix matching
• Symlinks are resolved before comparison
• The server can be run in read-only mode to disable mutating operations

Installation

Pathgate package is published on PyPI. To use it, for example with Claude Desktop, add this in the

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pathgate": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["pathgate", "C:\\Users\\me\\Documents"]
    }
  }
}

Or, you can use the install command to directly write the config file

uvx pathgate install <paths>

paths should have nothing between them

uvx pathgate install C:\Users\me\Documents C:\Users\me\Projects

When no paths are given, it prompts you for them.

Options

--read-only: writes the safer variant of the entry. --dry-run: shows what it would write and changes nothing. --yes: skips the confirmation prompt. --name: sets a different entry name (default pathgate). --config PATH: I build this mcp server for Claude primarily. Using this option edits a specific file, which also works for other clients that use the same mcpServers shape.

Usage

Start with allowed directories

pathgate "C:\Users\<username>\Documents" "C:\Users\<username>\Projects"

Read-only mode

pathgate --read-only "C:\Users\<username>\Documents"

Environment variable alternative

$env:FS_MCP_ALLOWED_PATHS = "C:\Users\<username>\Documents;C:\Users\<username>\Projects"
pathgate

On macOS/Linux, use : instead of ; for the path separator.

Tools

The current implementation exposes these tools:

• read_file_tool — read a file and return its content, size, and encoding
• write_file_tool — write content to a file
• list_directory_tool — list directory contents, optionally recursively
• create_directory_tool — create a directory tree if needed
• delete_file_tool — delete a single file
• delete_directory_tool — delete a directory, optionally recursively
• move_file_tool — move or rename a file/directory
• copy_file_tool — copy a file/directory
• search_files_tool — search for files matching a pattern
• get_file_info_tool — return metadata for a file or directory

Example requests

Once connected, clients can ask:

List the files in C:\Users\<username>\Documents

Read C:\Users\<username>\Documents\notes.txt

Search for *.py files under C:\Users\<username>\Projects

Create a file at C:\Users\<username>\Documents\todo.txt with the content "Ship release"

Project layout

pathgate/
├── pathgate/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── __main__.py
│   ├── config.py
│   ├── prompts.py
│   ├── resources.py
│   ├── server.py
│   ├── tool_schemas.py
│   └── tools.py
├── tests/
│   └── test_server.py
├── pyproject.toml
├── README.md
└── LICENSE

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• mcp>=2

References

• Model Context Protocol
• Python SDK