Explorer MCP Tools

This page documents the MCP contract owned directly by Explorer. It is the filesystem-facing tool surface implemented by filesystem-http-server.mjs and defined in explorer/utils/server/tool-definitions.mjs. It does not document gitAgent tools or soplangAgent tools, because those remain agent-owned contracts with their own documentation.

Explorer uses MCP to expose safe workspace operations to the browser and to other agents. The contract covers file reads and writes, directory traversal, search, metadata inspection, plugin catalog aggregation, plugin settings persistence, and exposure of the active allowed roots.

Path Safety

All Explorer MCP tools enforce the configured allowed roots. Relative paths are resolved inside the workspace context, absolute paths are accepted only if they stay inside allowed roots, and traversal outside those roots is rejected. That path model is the reason Explorer can expose reads, edits, copies, moves, and directory searches without giving callers unrestricted host filesystem access.

For the broader backend boundary, see Backend → Filesystem MCP. For domain operations owned by other agents, continue to the Git Agent or SOPLang Agent documentation instead of treating Explorer as a shared tool dump.

{
  path: "/.ploinky/repos/AchillesIDE/docs/development.html",
  source: "/repo/fileA.txt",
  destination: "/repo/fileB.txt"
}

Tool Catalog

The current Explorer-owned tool surface is grouped below by responsibility. These names are taken from the current implementation, and the Explorer unit tests validate that this page lists every declared Explorer MCP tool.

File Reads And Writes

read_file, read_text_file, read_media_file, read_multiple_files, write_file, write_binary_file, edit_file.

{
  path: string,
  tail?: number,
  head?: number
}

Directory Traversal And Mutations

create_directory, delete_file, delete_directory, list_directory, list_directory_with_sizes, list_directory_detailed, directory_tree, move_file, copy_file, get_file_info.

Search And Replace

search_files, search_text, search_text_status, search_text_cancel, replace_text.

Plugin And Workspace Settings

collect_ide_plugins, get_plugin_settings, set_plugin_enabled, list-skills, list_allowed_directories.

These tools are specific to Explorer's host role: they aggregate plugin manifests from the workspace, persist enabled or disabled plugin state for the UI, and reveal the currently active filesystem roots. Git mutations and SOPLang execution are intentionally absent here because they belong to their own agents.