filesystem vs MCPScan

Side-by-side comparison to help you pick between these two MCP servers.

	filesystem by modelcontextprotocol	MCPScan by sahiloj
Stars	★ 85,748	★ 22
30d uses	—	—
Score	77	45
Official	✓	—
Categories	File SystemDeveloper ToolsProductivity	SecurityDeveloper ToolsOps & Infra
Language	TypeScript	TypeScript
Last commit	this month	2 mo ago

filesystem · Summary

A feature-rich MCP server for filesystem operations with dynamic directory access control.

MCPScan · Summary

MCPScan is an offensive security auditor for MCP servers, detecting tool poisoning, credential leaks, RCE vectors, and supply chain vulnerabilities across stdio, HTTP, and SSE transports.

filesystem · Use cases

Enable AI models to read and write project files during development
Allow Claude or other MCP clients to browse and analyze codebases
Provide secure sandboxed access to specific directories for content generation

MCPScan · Use cases

Auditing MCP servers for security vulnerabilities before deployment
Continuous integration security checks in CI/CD pipelines
Security research on MCP protocol attack vectors
Discovering exposed MCP servers on local networks

filesystem · Install

Installation

Using NPX

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
        "/path/to/allowed/directory"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Using Docker

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "--mount", "type=bind,src=/path/to/allowed/dir,dst=/projects/allowed/dir",
        "mcp/filesystem",
        "/projects"
      ]
    }
  }
}

VS Code Extension

Click the installation buttons in the README to install directly in VS Code.

MCPScan · Install

# Requires Node.js ≥ 18
git clone https://github.com/sahiloj/MCPScan.git
cd MCPScan
npm install
npm run build

# Link globally
npm link

# Run from anywhere
mcpscan --help

**Claude Desktop Integration:** MCPScan automatically discovers Claude Desktop configurations at standard locations:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Linux: ~/.config/claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Comparison generated from public README + GitHub signals. Last updated automatically.