Hugging Face MCP Server
github.com/evalstate/hf-mcp-server- Category
- Developer Tools
- Rank
- No. 410Tools index
- Pricing
- Free
- Type
- TOOL
- Use case
- Data, Retrieval & Knowledge
- Interfaces
- MCP
- Builder
- evalstate
- GitHub
- 296 stars
- Latest release
- v0.4.23
- Date
About
Hugging Face's official MCP server: search models, datasets, papers and Spaces from an agent, and run community tools hosted on the Hub.
What it does
This server gives MCP clients a filesystem-like view of Hugging Face content, authenticated Hub operations, configurable tools, and access to selected Gradio applications. It runs as a hosted connector or a local server over standard input and output or stateless HTTP JSON.
Why it's ranked here
The project combines broad client support with unusually practical operating controls. Users can select tools per request, disable specific tools, inspect method metrics, and run the same server through hosted, npm, or Docker surfaces. Its explicit output limits and documented authentication behavior make integration risks easier to reason about.
What's good
Hub resources share a consistent navigation model with listing, inspection, reading, finding, and search operations. Documentation search falls back from semantic search to full-text search. Responses expose truncation state and continuation offsets. The repository also enforces strict TypeScript rules and provides unit, smoke, live, sandbox, and Python agent test surfaces.
Tradeoffs
HTTP requests require a Hugging Face bearer token, while local standard input mode needs token configuration through environment variables. The metrics password only discourages casual browsing and provides no users, roles, rate limiting, or audit trail. Skills snapshots work only over HTTP, not the long-lived standard input transport. Large listings and file reads are deliberately bounded.
How to use it well
Use it when an MCP agent regularly explores Hub resources, reads documentation, or invokes configured Gradio tools. Prefer the hosted connector for quick client setup, or Docker and npm packages when transport settings, metrics, and tool exposure need local control. Put production authentication and access control in the surrounding platform because the management password does not provide them.
Technical notes+
The root package.json defines a pnpm TypeScript workspace with recursive build, test, lint, typecheck, smoke, and sandbox scripts. packages/mcp/src/index.ts exports the library surface, while packages/mcp/src/tool-ids.ts centralizes built-in identifiers and bouquet groups. packages/mcp/src/hf-fs.ts implements bounded filesystem-style Hub access with Zod output schemas, and packages/mcp/src/hf-nav.ts handles collection navigation. packages/mcp/src/hf-fs-docs.ts adds cached manifests, section reads, semantic search, and full-text fallback. packages/app/vite.config.ts builds React management and single-file welcome interfaces. packages/app/vitest.config.ts and packages/mcp/vitest.config.ts configure Node-based tests, while packages/e2e-python/agent.py exercises anonymous and authenticated MCP calls.
Observed
- Primary language
- TypeScript, with a Python end-to-end agent harness
- Package management
- pnpm workspace with recursive build, test, lint, and typecheck scripts
- Install surfaces
- Hosted connector, npm executables, and Docker image
- Interfaces
- MCP over STDIO and stateless Streamable HTTP JSON
- Client support
- Documented setup for Claude Desktop, claude.ai, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, VSCode, and Cursor
- Web interface
- Management metrics interface and MCP welcome page on the local HTTP server
- Testing structure
- Vitest configurations plus smoke, sandbox, live, and Python agent test harnesses
Read from README.md, package.json, packages/app/vite.config.ts, packages/e2e-python/agent.py, packages/app/eslint.config.js, packages/app/vitest.config.ts, packages/mcp/eslint.config.js, packages/mcp/vitest.config.ts, packages/mcp/src/index.ts, packages/mcp/src/hf-fs.ts, packages/mcp/src/hf-nav.ts, packages/mcp/src/logger.ts, packages/mcp/src/tool-ids.ts, packages/mcp/src/utilities.ts, packages/mcp/src/hf-fs-docs.ts.
Tech Stack
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Editorially curated, with community endorsements as a secondary signal. Corrections welcome.