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rclone-mcp-server

MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for the Rclone RC API. Gives AI assistants the ability to manage cloud storage remotes, copy/sync files, list directories, and more — all through natural language.

Tools are auto-generated from the rclone-openapi spec using the rclone-sdk client. 98 endpoints, organized into selectable toolsets.

Prerequisites

A running rclone remote control daemon:

rclone rcd --rc-no-auth
# or with auth:
rclone rcd --rc-user=admin --rc-pass=secret

Installation

Cursor / Claude Desktop (stdio)

Add to your .cursor/mcp.json or claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rclone-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "rclone-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "RCLONE_URL": "http://localhost:5572"
      }
    }
  }
}

With authentication

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rclone-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "rclone-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "RCLONE_URL": "http://localhost:5572",
        "RCLONE_USER": "admin",
        "RCLONE_PASS": "secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Docker

docker build -t rclone-mcp-server .

docker run -i --rm \
  -e RCLONE_URL=http://host.docker.internal:5572 \
  rclone-mcp-server

Streamable HTTP transport

For remote hosting or web-based MCP clients:

npx rclone-mcp-server http --port 3000

Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable Description Default
RCLONE_URL rclone RC daemon URL http://localhost:5572
RCLONE_USER HTTP Basic Auth username —
RCLONE_PASS HTTP Basic Auth password —
RCLONE_TOOLSETS Comma-separated toolset list default
RCLONE_READ_ONLY Set to 1 to disable write tools —
PORT HTTP listen port for the http command 3000

CLI Arguments

rclone-mcp-server [command]

Commands:
  rclone-mcp-server stdio  Run with stdio transport (default)
  rclone-mcp-server http   Run with Streamable HTTP transport

Options:
  --toolsets   Comma-separated list of toolsets
  --read-only  Only expose read-only tools
  --port       HTTP port (http command only, default: 3000)

Toolsets

Tools are grouped by API path prefix. Enable only what you need to keep the tool list focused.

Toolset Paths Default
core /core/version, /core/stats, /operations/about Yes
config_read /config/listremotes, /config/get Yes
operations /operations/list, /operations/stat, /operations/size, /operations/copyfile, /operations/movefile, /operations/mkdir, /operations/deletefile Yes
sharing /operations/publiclink No
sync /sync/* No
jobs /job/* No
config_admin /config/* (rest) No
operations_advanced /operations/* (rest) No
mount /mount/* No
serve /serve/* No
core_advanced /core/*, /rc/* (rest) No
vfs /vfs/* No
cache /cache/* No
debug /debug/* No
backend /backend/* No
options /options/* No
plugins /pluginsctl/* No
fscache /fscache/* No

Special values:

  • default — the three default toolsets (core, config_read, operations)
  • all — every toolset

Examples

# Default toolsets (12 tools)
npx rclone-mcp-server

# Everything (98 tools)
RCLONE_TOOLSETS=all npx rclone-mcp-server

# Just file operations and config
npx rclone-mcp-server --toolsets operations,config_read

# Default + mount
npx rclone-mcp-server --toolsets default,mount

# Read-only mode (no copy, delete, sync, etc.)
npx rclone-mcp-server --read-only

MCP Resources

Beyond the call-based tools, the server exposes read-only resources so clients can pull context like a file URL. They are always registered (regardless of toolset) and are safe to enable in read-only mode.

Resource URI Description
rclone://remotes List of configured remote names
rclone://config/dump Full config dump with secrets redacted (pass, token, key, auth, …)
rclone://core/version Running Rclone engine / Go version
rclone://core/stats Real-time transfer & job stats
rclone://jobs/active Active background jobs
rclone://{remote}/{+path} Directory listing or file content for a remote path (stat → list / cat; binary or >1MB files return metadata only)

Examples:

  • rclone://remotes
  • rclone://core/version
  • rclone://my-remote/ — list the root of remote my-remote
  • rclone://my-remote/Books/guide.pdf — try to read a file

Read-Only Mode

When --read-only or RCLONE_READ_ONLY=1 is set, only non-mutating tools are registered. This excludes operations like file copy/move/delete, sync, directory creation, mount/unmount, etc. Useful for giving AI assistants safe, read-only access.

Usage Scenarios

The scenarios below build on the base installs from Installation: use the stdio command/args block you picked there and only swap the env fields. For the stdio examples below we use the published package via npx; if you built locally, replace "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "rclone-mcp-server"] with "command": "node", "args": ["/path/to/rclone-mcp-server/dist/index.js"].

Scenario 1 — Standard developer config (default tools + job monitoring)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rclone-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "rclone-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "RCLONE_URL": "http://localhost:5572",
        "RCLONE_TOOLSETS": "default,jobs"
      }
    }
  }
}

For a remote daemon behind a reverse proxy with HTTP Basic Auth:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rclone-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "rclone-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "RCLONE_URL": "https://rclone.example.com",
        "RCLONE_USER": "your_user",
        "RCLONE_PASS": "your_password",
        "RCLONE_TOOLSETS": "default,jobs"
      }
    }
  }
}

2 — Read-only (viewing only)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rclone-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "rclone-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "RCLONE_URL": "http://localhost:5572",
        "RCLONE_TOOLSETS": "default",
        "RCLONE_READ_ONLY": "1"
      }
    }
  }
}

3 — Enable bulk sync + share links

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rclone-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "rclone-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "RCLONE_URL": "http://localhost:5572",
        "RCLONE_TOOLSETS": "default,jobs,sync,sharing"
      }
    }
  }
}

4 — Everything (98 tools)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rclone-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "rclone-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "RCLONE_TOOLSETS": "all"
      }
    }
  }
}

Common Tool Examples

The registered tool names are snake_case versions of each RC endpoint, e.g. /operations/copyfile → operations_copyfile. Since this is often an MCP bridge to a remote rcd daemon, remote names must carry a trailing colon and there is no local: remote on the daemon — use a real configured remote (e.g. my-remote:).

Discover (always list first, never guess a path)

{ "fs": "my-remote:", "remote": "" }                 // `rclone_lsjson` — root
{ "fs": "my-remote:", "remote": "Books", "recurse": true }  // recursive
{ "fs": "my-remote:", "remote": "Books/x.pdf" }       // `operations_stat` — one file
{ "fs": "my-remote:" }                                // `operations_size` — totals
{ "fs": "my-remote:" }                                // `core_about` — quota/capacity

Single-file operations

# copy one file
{ "srcFs": "my-remote:", "srcRemote": "backup/a.txt",
  "dstFs": "other-remote:", "dstRemote": "incoming/a.txt" }   // operations_copyfile

# move one file (source removed on success)
{ "srcFs": "my-remote:", "srcRemote": "a.txt",
  "dstFs": "my-remote:", "dstRemote": "archive/a.txt" }              // operations_movefile

# create / delete a directory or file
{ "fs": "my-remote:", "remote": "new-folder" }        // operations_mkdir
{ "fs": "my-remote:", "remote": "tmp/a.txt" }         // operations_deletefile

Deleting a directory needs the operations_advanced toolset. The default tools only include operations_deletefile, which removes a single file — it cannot delete directories. Removing empty directories / a directory tree is done by operations_rmdir / operations_rmdirs / operations_purge, which are grouped under operations_advanced (default: false). To enable directory deletion, set RCLONE_TOOLSETS=default,jobs,operations_advanced. (mkdir is in the default operations toolset, so creating directories works out of the box; only deleting them requires the extra toolset.)

Bulk tree operations — always use _async: true

Whole-tree copies and syncs can exceed the request timeout. Set _async: true so the daemon returns a jobid immediately, then poll job_status.

# copy tree src -> dst (additive, no deletes)
{ "srcFs": "source-remote:", "dstFs": "my-remote:", "_async": true }  // sync_copy

# mirror dst to src (DESTRUCTIVE — deletes extra dst files)
{ "srcFs": "my-remote:", "dstFs": "source-remote:", "_async": true }  // sync_sync

# poll the job
{ "jobid": 17 }   // job_status -> until `finished` is true

Long-running tools that accept _async: sync_copy, sync_move, sync_sync, operations_copyfile, operations_movefile, operations_size, operations_purge, operations_delete, operations_copyurl, operations_check.

Share links (sharing toolset only)

{ "fs": "my-remote:", "remote": "share/folder" }       // operations_publiclink
{ "fs": "my-remote:", "remote": "share/folder", "unlink": true }  // remove

License

MIT

Made with ☁️ for the rclone community

This project is a secondary refactor based on rclone-ui/rclone-mcp.

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