Fast local full-text search for Windows files (tantivy + jieba), exposed to AI agents over MCP.
Fast local full-text search for Windows files (tantivy + jieba), exposed to AI agents over MCP. That is what the dowse mcp server brings to an AI assistant: the same capability, reachable through the Model Context Protocol rather than a separate app or dashboard.
Open-source local file content search for Windows. Find file names, PDF and Office contents, source code, and text inside screenshots — one hotkey away.
The server publishes 3 tools. What each one is for:
Multi — term queries default to AND semantics. Quoted phrase queries match on exact position. Inline operators narrow things down further: path:reportsWindows-native — ✓Metric — Design targetInstallation goes through your MCP client rather than a global install: point it at cargo on npm and it is fetched when the client starts. The copy-paste blocks for Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor are further down this page.
Plenty of developer tooling servers cover similar ground. The differences that matter in practice are scope of access and how much setup stands between you and a working tool call. Dowse's toolset — Multi, Windows-native, Metric — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by ltspace; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.
SyncDev reviews every entry in this directory against the project's own documentation before publishing, and revisits them as servers change.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Multi | term queries default to AND semantics. Quoted phrase queries match on exact position. Inline operators narrow things down further: path:reports, mtime:>2026-01-01, size:>10mb, uppercase OR between groups, -term to exclud |
| Windows-native | ✓ |
| Metric | Design target |
{
"mcpServers": {
"dowse": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "cargo"]
}
}
}Add to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop.
Kill hallucinated APIs — version-accurate, up-to-date library documentation injected straight into context.
Microsoft's official browser automation server — drive a real browser through the accessibility tree, no screenshots needed.
GitHub's official server — repos, issues, pull requests, Actions and code security, straight from your assistant.
Issue tracking at the speed of conversation — Linear's official hosted server with OAuth and zero install.
Local repository surgery — status, diffs, commits, branches and history for any repo on disk.
Timezone sanity for AI — current time anywhere and correct conversions, without the model doing date math.