# Mirage (AgentVFS) vs Filesystem (MCP reference server) > Mirage scores 65.3 (B) to Filesystem's 59.2 (C) for fs local. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentvfs-vs-filesystem-reference-server - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentvfs-vs-filesystem-reference-server.md (~1,900 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentvfs-vs-filesystem-reference-server.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentvfs-vs-filesystem-reference-server.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json) - Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt) - API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json - MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key) - Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data) - Updated: 2026-10-21 Mirage (AgentVFS) scores 65.3 (B) on agent readiness against Filesystem (MCP reference server)'s 59.2 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Filesystem (MCP reference server) leads on transparency & trust. Both do fs local. - Mirage (AgentVFS): grade B, 65.3/100, rank #363 of 1197. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agentvfs.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agentvfs.json - Filesystem (MCP reference server): grade C, 59.2/100, rank #625 of 1197. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/filesystem-reference-server.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/filesystem-reference-server.json - Best database, file and memory tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/data/index.md - All 55 databases comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/data/index.md ## Which one, for what ### Mirage (AgentVFS) (B) Good for: An agent that should reach several stores and services (S3, Drive, Gmail, Slack, GitHub, Notion, Postgres, Redis) through one shell with ls, grep and jq instead of one MCP server per service. Ahead on: - Reliability, 63 against 54 - Agent ergonomics, 79 against 70 - Security & auth, 57 against 39 - Maintenance & community, 88 against 60 Also in its favour: - Free to start without a card Watch for: Version 0.0.7, labelled preview and alpha, with no changelog or deprecation policy ### Filesystem (MCP reference server) (C) Good for: Giving a local agent scoped read and write access to a project folder with host-side gating of writes through annotations. Ahead on: - Transparency & trust, 73 against 42 Watch for: No depth limit on `directory_tree` and no size cap on reads or search results ## Score by category | Category | Weight | Mirage (AgentVFS) | Filesystem (MCP reference server) | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 63 | 54 | Mirage (AgentVFS) +9 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 68 | even | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 70 | Mirage (AgentVFS) +9 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 39 | Mirage (AgentVFS) +18 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 88 | 60 | Mirage (AgentVFS) +28 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 42 | 73 | Filesystem (MCP reference server) +31 | | Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | | | **Total** | | **65.3 · B** | **59.2 · C** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | Mirage (AgentVFS) | Filesystem (MCP reference server) | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | SDK + MCP | MCP server | | Vendor | Strukto.AI | MCP project (reference servers) | | Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) | | Transports | stdio, HTTP | stdio | | Auth | None | None | | Pricing | Free | Free | | x402 | no | no | | Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT and Apache-2.0 | | Tools exposed | 7 | 14 | | Read-only variant documented | yes | no | | llms.txt | yes | no | | Last release | 2026-10-20 | 2026-08-31 | | Terms last updated | | 2021-09-08 | | Privacy policy last updated | | 2023-03-15 | | Customer content may train models | | not found in the text | | Terms restrict automated access | | not found in the text | | Terms restrict benchmarking | | not found in the text | | Terms or service can change without notice | | not found in the text | | Arbitration or class-action waiver | | not found in the text | | Popularity | 3.7k stars, 24k npm/wk, 1.9k PyPI/wk | 90k stars, 647k npm/wk | | Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | 3.5/5 (2) | ## Verdicts **Mirage (AgentVFS).** An Apache-2.0 library, CLI and local MCP server that puts many services behind one shell, with mount modes, allow, ask and deny rules and hidden paths. It is at version 0.0.7, called a preview and has no changelog, and its token savings come from VFS-Bench, a benchmark its own authors built and ran. **Filesystem (MCP reference server).** All 14 tools carry `readOnlyHint`, and the four write tools set `destructiveHint` and `idempotentHint` accurately. No depth limit on `directory_tree` and no size cap on reads or search results. ## Before you call either ### Mirage (AgentVFS) 1. Read the workspace's VFS.md first and point grep, find and cat at the path it names, not at a whole mount. 2. Run a virtual CLI's subcommand with `--help` to get its argument schema before calling it; subcommands take JSON arguments. 3. Expect a refusal with metadata when a profile asks or denies; the decision must be answered and the line retried in the same session. 4. Set `MIRAGE_AUTH_MODE=token` or `jwt` before exposing the server beyond localhost. ### Filesystem (MCP reference server) 1. Pass `excludePatterns` such as `node_modules` and `.git` to `directory_tree`. There's no depth parameter 2. Call `list_allowed_directories` first. Any path outside them fails 3. Use `head` or `tail` on `read_text_file` for logs and large files. Nothing else limits the size 4. Run `edit_file` with `dryRun: true` first. The edit fails if `oldText` doesn't match 5. Expect `move_file` to fail if the destination exists. Move or delete the target first ## Questions ### Which is better for AI agents, Mirage (AgentVFS) or Filesystem (MCP reference server)? Mirage (AgentVFS) scores 65.3 (B) on agent readiness against Filesystem (MCP reference server)'s 59.2 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Filesystem (MCP reference server) leads on transparency & trust. ### Can an agent call Mirage (AgentVFS) and Filesystem (MCP reference server) without installing anything? Mirage (AgentVFS) runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Filesystem (MCP reference server) runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. ### Are Mirage (AgentVFS) and Filesystem (MCP reference server) open source? Yes. Mirage (AgentVFS) is open source (Apache-2.0). Filesystem (MCP reference server) is open source (MIT and Apache-2.0). ## For agents - This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentvfs-vs-filesystem-reference-server.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentvfs-vs-filesystem-reference-server.min.md - Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "agentvfs", "b": "filesystem-reference-server"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare agentvfs filesystem-reference-server` - Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agentvfs.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/filesystem-reference-server.json ## Disclosure - MCP started at Anthropic, which makes the Claude models our research agents and review panel run on (Anthropic donated it to the Agentic AI Foundation, a directed fund under the Linux Foundation, in December 2025), and this server is graded by the same checklist as every other listing. --- Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp