--- title: My AI Couldn’t See My Files — I Built a Zero-Dependency... description: A developer built a zero-dependency MCP (Model Context Protocol) server in pure Python to give AI tools direct access to local project files. The... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/my-ai-couldn-t-see-my-files-i-built-a-zero-dependency-mcp-server-lojzkmewc twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: My AI Couldn’t See My Files — I Built a Zero-Dependency MCP Server | daily.dev og:description: A developer built a zero-dependency MCP (Model Context Protocol) server in pure Python to give AI tools direct access to local project files. The... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/my-ai-couldn-t-see-my-files-i-built-a-zero-dependency-mcp-server-lojzkmewc og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/LOjZkMeWC.png og:image:alt: My AI Couldn’t See My Files — I Built a Zero-Dependency MCP Server og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # My AI Couldn’t See My Files — I Built a Zero-Dependency MCP Server **[Towards Data Science](https://daily.dev/sources/tds)** · 17 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A developer built a zero-dependency MCP (Model Context Protocol) server in pure Python to give AI tools direct access to local project files. The implementation covers both stdio and HTTP/SSE transports using only the Python standard library — no FastAPI, uvicorn, or MCP SDK required. Key design decisions include strict path traversal security using Path.resolve(), shallow-by-default file search after a 10-minute hang from rglob(), a 1 MB file read cap, and binary file fallback via base64. The architecture uses a stateless JSON-RPC dispatcher shared by both transports, 16 worker threads for concurrency, and per-client message queues. Benchmarks show 5 concurrent clients completing in under 50ms on Windows 11 Python 3.12.6. A 50-test suite covers security, all four tools, the dispatcher, and HTTP transport. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Build a Python MCP Client to Test Servers From Your Terminal – Real Python](https://daily.dev/posts/build-a-python-mcp-client-to-test-servers-from-your-terminal-real-python-qrpeeu3gs) · Real Python · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [MCP Servers for Python Devs](https://daily.dev/posts/mcp-servers-for-python-devs-zy6zukegx) · Planet Python · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How to Build Your Own MCP Server with Python](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-build-your-own-mcp-server-with-python-9azzt16xk) · freeCodeCamp · 4 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#python](https://daily.dev/tags/python), [#mcp](https://daily.dev/tags/mcp), [#server-sent-events](https://daily.dev/tags/server-sent-events) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/my-ai-couldn-t-see-my-files-i-built-a-zero-dependency-mcp-server-lojzkmewc) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"My AI Couldn’t See My Files — I Built a Zero-Dependency MCP Server","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/my-ai-couldn-t-see-my-files-i-built-a-zero-dependency-mcp-server-lojzkmewc","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/my-ai-couldn-t-see-my-files-i-built-a-zero-dependency-mcp-server-lojzkmewc"},"datePublished":"2026-06-05T16:57:08.642Z","dateModified":"2026-06-05T16:57:32.457Z","description":"A developer built a zero-dependency MCP (Model Context Protocol) server in pure Python to give AI tools direct access to local project files. 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