MCP reference servers
The seven reference MCP servers kept by the MCP steering group — filesystem, git, fetch, memory, time, sequential thinking and a test server — as working examples of the protocol.
Install
-
Filesystem server
npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem <allowed-dir>Pass only the directories it may touch. Pin a version with @<version> in real use.
-
Git server
uvx mcp-server-git -
Fetch server
uvx mcp-server-fetch
The small set of servers the MCP project maintains itself, meant to show how the protocol and the official SDKs work. The larger list that used to live here (GitHub, Slack, Postgres and so on) is archived; look for those in the MCP Registry or from the vendor.
When to use it
- You’re learning MCP or writing your own server and want working code to read.
- You need a basic filesystem, git or fetch tool and want the maintained reference version.
everythingexercises every protocol feature, which makes it good for testing a client.
Before you install
The README says these are reference implementations, not production-ready. Give the filesystem server the narrowest directory list you can. Don’t run fetch where the agent could reach internal services or cloud metadata endpoints unless you intend it to.
- Publisher
- Model Context Protocol
- Works with
- Any agent, Claude apps, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex
- Categories
- MCP & integrations, Agent building
- License
- Apache-2.0 / MIT
- Cost
- Free