filesystem MCP server doesn't support legal Windows pathnames in claude_desktop_config.json

[NemanSyed]

Describe the bug
In claude_desktop_config.json, legal Windows characters in pathnames appear unsupported:
Accepted: "C:\\NS\\AI" (works with no spaces and doubled up \ characters)
Accepted: "/Users/NEMANS~1/FOO~2/BAR~1/Thing/Other~1" (used short name / 8.3 name since it avoids risk of spaces or LFN problems)
Unaccepted: "C:\\NS\\My Kindle Content" (problem: spaces)
Unaccepted: "/c/NS/MyKindleContent" (problem: inclusion of drive letter)
Unaccepted: "/mnt/c/NS/MyKindleContent" (problem: inclusion of drive letter)

There are probably other examples too, but I've run out of patience.

Error message:
MCP server filesystem disconnected. For troubleshooting guidance, please visit our debugging documentation.

Note "/Users/NEMANS~1/FOO~2/BAR~1/Thing/Other~1", displays with strikethrough in the UI after the "c:\users\nemans" portion of the resolved pathname string. It's exactly what we see when "/Users/NEMANS1/FOO2/BAR1/Thing/Other1" isn't marked as code in the bug report editor.

To Reproduce
Add a path into the config that includes spaces (and probably other legal-in-Windows characters) or add a path that includes the drive letter.

Expected behavior

1. Accept pathnames allowable in Windows in the Windows application's config file
2. Improved documentation in the Windows section of https://modelcontextprotocol.io/quickstart/user#2-add-the-filesystem-mcp-server that shows how to include other legal forms of Windows pathnames into the config.
   

[NemanSyed]

In response to this prompt:
List only the files in the folders you have access to. Nothing else.

We get the error:
It looks like we can't access the folders named in the config using the 8.3 format:
The other two directories (with the shortened/tilde names) appear to be inaccessible - I get an error that their parent directories don't exist, which might be due to the way the paths are written with shortened names

Are my initials part of the problem? The folder C:\NS has \N (newline) in it. It's clearly not the only problem though, since the folders without tildes were properly parsed and analyzed. The complaint is specifically about folders with tildes in the pathnames.

[StevenStavrakis]

Running into something similar here. Not able to use any filenames with spaces in them. Very frustrating.

[cmrhyq]

I don't think this is an unsupported issue. I think you can try running Claude Desktop as an administrator in Windows. This is how I configured the filesystem of my Claude Desktop.

[NemanSyed]

@cmrhyq doesn't change for me when I run it as admin or regular user. The screenshot is after having added a folder into the config with a space in the folder name then running as admin. Same error, same behaviour. Upon removing that path from the config, all was good again.

[cmrhyq]

This is my configuration for your reference

[NemanSyed]

Thanks @cmrhyq. What happens when you include a folder with a space in the name? My config includes a few folders as I understand it only allows access to explicitly-named folders, not any subfolders, peers, etc. (I don't believe I saw any in yours.)

The config you see in my screen cap works. It fails when I include something like "C:\\NS\\My Kindle Content", regardless of whether run as admin or regular user.

[jcanofuentes]

Any news on this topic?

[leependu]

Hi,
I was also having issues on one of my machines due to a space in one of my paths. My workaround (not great) was to just create a junction with powershell.

i.e. if it was in your user folder
New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\john" -Target "C:\Users\John Smith"

[daniel347x]

I, too, cannot access a folder with spaces in the pathname in Claude Desktop for Windows with the filesystem-server MCP server.