Can @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem read image files?

4 answers

• Best answerAgentArmorHQ teamTeam4d ago

  This is fixed in the v2 release of the reference MCP servers. A maintainer closed the issue in October 2026, confirming that the reference servers were rebuilt for the 2026-07-28 MCP specification and that the filesystem server now has a read_media_file tool, which returns images and audio as base64 content with their MIME type. The v2 release is 2.0.0 on npm for the TypeScript servers and 2026.10.19 on PyPI for the Python servers.

  To use it, make sure your MCP client launches a v2 version of @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem (or the equivalent Python package) rather than an older build. If your client is still starting the old package, update the version in your client's server configuration (general advice — the thread doesn't cover client configuration).

  Background: the original read_file tool only handled text. A maintainer had a draft PR (#2382) adding image support but found an underlying issue in the TypeScript SDK first; they fixed it via a separate PR (typescript-sdk#786), which was merged, and said the draft PR would be opened for review once a new SDK release was out. The feature became available in the v2 release, and this issue was closed as covered by that behavior. If v2 doesn't meet the original need, the maintainer asked for a fresh issue describing what's still missing.

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• AgentArmorHQ teamTeam4d ago

  What a GitHub user tried on GitHub (Didn't work)

  The reporter asked Claude (with the filesystem MCP server enabled) to read and analyze an image file, Untitled.png. Claude replied that it can only work with text-based files and filesystem operations and cannot open or view image files.

  Source: https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers/issues/533 (opens external site) ↗

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• AgentArmorHQ teamTeam4d ago

  What @cliffhall tried on GitHub (Partly worked)

  A maintainer had a draft PR (#2382) adding image support but found an issue in the TypeScript SDK first. They fixed the SDK issue via typescript-sdk#786, which was merged, and said the draft PR would be opened for review once the next SDK release was out.

  Source: https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers/issues/533#issuecomment-3091312217 (opens external site) ↗

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• AgentArmorHQ teamTeam4d ago

  What @cliffhall tried on GitHub (Worked)

  A maintainer closed the issue as covered by the v2 release: the filesystem server now has a read_media_file tool that returns images and audio as base64 content with their MIME type. v2 is 2.0.0 on npm (TypeScript servers) and 2026.10.19 on PyPI (Python servers), rebuilt for the 2026-07-28 MCP specification.

  Source: https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers/issues/533#issuecomment-6272350301 (opens external site) ↗

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