Local Context

Local MCP server for Claude Desktop and Claude Code. It runs on your machine and can:

• list, search, and read files

• run one terminal command

• query SQLite

• run named tasks on a schedule, without calling Claude

Python 3.11+ is the only requirement. The server does not call the Claude API. Tool results are capped (4,000 characters by default, 16,000 max) so a read cannot dump a whole file into the chat.

Claude Desktop

1. Install Python 3.11+. On Windows, py -3 --version should work.

2. Open Settings → Developer → Edit Config. That opens the config file this install actually reads.

3. Add a server. Use the full path to run.cmd on Windows so the Microsoft Store python stub is not used:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "local-context": {
      "command": "C:\\path\\to\\local-context\\run.cmd",
      "env": {
        "PYTHONUNBUFFERED": "1",
        "PYTHONIOENCODING": "utf-8",
        "LOCAL_CONTEXT_ROOT": "C:\\path\\to\\folder\\claude\\may\\use"
      }
    }
  }
}

On macOS or Linux, set command to python3 and args to ["/path/to/local-context/run.py"].

4. Quit Claude completely and open it again.

5. Settings → Developer → Local MCP servers should list local-context.

LOCAL_CONTEXT_ROOT is the folder Claude may read and use as the shell working directory.

Related MCP server: MCP Server Toolkit

Claude Code

From this directory:

claude --plugin-dir .

From GitHub, add this repository as a marketplace, then install local-context@local-context-market.

Tools

Plug in data

Copy config.example.json to config.json (gitignored). Source types: file, directory, json, csv, sqlite, command.

A project can also ship .local-context.json with file, directory, json, csv, or sqlite sources inside that project. It cannot add shell access, tasks, or command sources.

query_sql runs one statement. Writes need "allow_sql_writes": true and a sqlite source with "read_only": false.

Run due tasks without Claude:

py -3 run.py --runner --once

every_seconds: 0 means manual only. Point Task Scheduler or cron at --once.

Limits

The process runs as you. It is not a sandbox.

• Reads and the shell working directory stay under an allowed root, or a source you configured.

• Symlinks are followed only when the real file is still inside that area.

• .claude, .claude.json, and the Claude Desktop credential folders are blocked.

• Commands do not inherit Anthropic environment variables. Commands that name those credential files, the Anthropic API, encoded PowerShell, disk format, or shutdown are refused.

• A command can still open some other file by absolute path.

• Regex search does not allow *, +, ?, or {.

Develop

py -3 -m pip install pytest
py -3 -m pytest