MCP Server for FTP, FTPS, and SFTP Access

This Model Context Protocol (MCP) server provides file-management tools for FTP, FTPS, and SFTP servers. It supports directory listing, binary-safe downloads/uploads, text edits, appends, renames/moves, directory creation, and deletion.

Protocol support

• FTP — traditional FTP, normally on port 21.
• FTPS — FTP secured with TLS. Use FTP_PROTOCOL=ftp and FTP_SECURE=true.
• SFTP — SSH File Transfer Protocol, normally on port 22. SFTP is a different protocol from FTPS and is already encrypted by SSH, so FTP_SECURE does not apply to it.

Features

• List files and directories
• Download and upload text or binary files
• Edit exact text in remote files
• Append to files
• Rename or move files/directories
• Create and delete directories
• FTP, FTPS, and SFTP support
• SFTP password or SSH private-key authentication
• Optional 1Password CLI private-key resolution
• AES-256-GCM encrypted credential values
• OS-keychain support for the encryption key

Installation

Installing via Smithery

npx -y @smithery/cli install alxspikers-team/mcp-server-ftp --client claude

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18.14 or newer
• An MCP-compatible client such as Claude Desktop

Installing via npm

The server is published as mcp-server-ftp:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ftp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-server-ftp"],
      "env": {
        "FTP_HOST": "ftp.example.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/alxspiker/mcp-server-ftp.git
cd mcp-server-ftp
npm install
npm run build

Configuration

FTP example

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ftp-server": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-server-ftp/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "FTP_HOST": "ftp.example.com",
        "FTP_PORT": "21",
        "FTP_PROTOCOL": "ftp",
        "FTP_USER": "your-username",
        "FTP_PASSWORD": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

FTPS example

FTPS uses the normal FTP client with TLS enabled:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ftp-server": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-server-ftp/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "FTP_HOST": "ftps.example.com",
        "FTP_PORT": "21",
        "FTP_PROTOCOL": "ftp",
        "FTP_SECURE": "true",
        "FTP_USER": "your-username",
        "FTP_PASSWORD": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

FTP_SECURE is only meaningful when FTP_PROTOCOL=ftp. It is ignored by the SFTP path because SFTP is already encrypted over SSH.

SFTP example

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ftp-server": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-server-ftp/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "FTP_HOST": "sftp.example.com",
        "FTP_PORT": "22",
        "FTP_PROTOCOL": "sftp",
        "FTP_USER": "your-username",
        "FTP_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH": "~/.ssh/id_ed25519",
        "FTP_PASSPHRASE": "your-key-passphrase"
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration options

Environment variable	Applies to	Description	Default
FTP_HOST	all	Server hostname or IP address	localhost
FTP_PORT	all	Server port	21 for FTP/FTPS, 22 for SFTP
FTP_PROTOCOL	all	ftp or sftp	ftp
FTP_USER	all	Username; supports encrypted enc: values	anonymous
FTP_PASSWORD	all	Password; supports encrypted enc: values	empty
FTP_SECURE	FTP/FTPS only	Enables TLS/FTPS for the FTP client	false
FTP_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH	SFTP only	SSH private-key path or op:// 1Password secret reference	auto-detect
FTP_PASSPHRASE	SFTP only	SSH private-key passphrase; supports encrypted enc: values	empty
FTP_ENCRYPTION_KEY	encrypted credentials	64-character hex AES-256 key. Prefer the OS keychain or a global environment variable for local installs.	disabled

SFTP authentication

SFTP supports private-key and password authentication.

The server looks for a private key in this order:

1. FTP_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH, if set
2. ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
3. ~/.ssh/id_rsa
4. ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa

If no key is found, FTP_PASSWORD is used.

Reading an SFTP key from 1Password

FTP_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH may contain a 1Password secret reference instead of a filesystem path:

"FTP_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH": "op://Private/my-server/private key"

Requirements:

• The 1Password CLI (op) must be installed and available on PATH.
• The CLI must already be able to authenticate, either through the desktop-app integration or OP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN.

The key is resolved lazily, cached in memory for the process, and is not written to disk.

If the SSH server rejects 1Password's default exported key format, request OpenSSH format:

"FTP_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH": "op://Private/my-server/private key?ssh-format=openssh"

Credential encryption

FTP_USER, FTP_PASSWORD, and FTP_PASSPHRASE may be stored as AES-256-GCM encrypted values using the enc: format.

Generate an encryption key

node -e "console.log(require('crypto').randomBytes(32).toString('hex'))"

Store the key in the OS keychain (recommended for local installs)

npm run build
npm run store-key -- <your-64-char-hex-key>

The server loads the key from macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, or Linux Secret Service when available.

Alternatively, set the key globally in the process environment:

export FTP_ENCRYPTION_KEY=<your-64-char-hex-key>

Do not place FTP_ENCRYPTION_KEY beside the encrypted credentials in the same local MCP config unless your deployment environment gives you no separate secret-storage mechanism.

Encrypt a value

npm run build
FTP_ENCRYPTION_KEY=<your-64-char-hex-key> npm run encrypt-env -- <plaintext-value>

If the key is already available from the OS keychain or shell environment:

npm run encrypt-env -- <plaintext-value>

Available tools

Tool	Description
list-directory	List contents of a remote directory
download-file	Download a file; binary content is returned as base64
upload-file	Upload text or base64-encoded binary content
create-directory	Create a directory
delete-file	Delete a file
delete-directory	Delete a directory
rename-file	Rename or move a file or directory
edit-file	Replace exact text in a remote text file
append-file	Append content to a file, creating it if needed

Security notes

• Prefer SFTP when available; it uses SSH encryption and key authentication without FTPS certificate configuration.
• Use FTP_SECURE=true only for FTPS servers using the FTP protocol path.
• Use credential encryption when a client configuration would otherwise contain plaintext credentials.
• FTP and SFTP transfers may use short-lived local temporary files for upload/download/append operations; those files are removed during cleanup after each operation.

Troubleshooting Windows builds

1. Confirm Node.js 18.14 or newer and npm are installed.
2. Run npm install.
3. Run npm run build or npx tsc.
4. Start the compiled server with node build/index.js.

License

MIT