One tool, answered from an index the operating system is already keeping, which is why a search across an entire drive comes back rather than timing out. The platforms are not equal and it is worth knowing which one you are on: Windows gets the full Everything syntax including extension and date filters, while macOS and Linux fall back to filename matching through their own indexes.
One search tool that hands the query to whichever index the platform already maintains: the Everything utility on Windows, Spotlight's command-line search on macOS, and the locate database on Linux. The tool is the same everywhere; what it can do behind it is not.
- search — files and folders across the whole system, returning path, size in bytes and last modified date for each hit
- A cap on how many results come back, so a broad query does not flood the conversation
- Matching against the full path rather than the filename alone, with case sensitivity, whole-word and regular-expression matching as separate switches
- Sorting by name, path, size, extension, creation date or modification date, in either direction
- On Windows, the full Everything query language — extension filters, date filters and the rest of its syntax
- On macOS and Linux, filename search through the system index, with macOS also reaching file contents through Spotlight
What you need beyond the server depends on the platform: on Windows, the Everything utility installed with its service running, and its SDK library present and pointed at from the configuration; on Linux, locate or plocate installed, with its database built once before the first search returns anything; on macOS, nothing extra, since it uses the built-in Spotlight search command. Python is needed on all three, launched through a tool runner or installed from the package index.
One command — pip install mcp-server-everything-search