What
Claude Code now supports MCP servers that implement directory listing via the io.modelcontextprotocol/skills protocol extension, enabling skill-serving MCP servers to expose navigable directory structures.
Details
- MCP servers advertise the capability via
extensions["io.modelcontextprotocol/skills"].directoryRead: true - Claude can list directory contents at a URI and descend into subdirectories; subdirectories appear with
mimeType: "inode/directory" - When a skill at a URI references a supporting file by relative path (e.g.
templates/invoice.md), Claude is told to call the MCP read tool with the full composed URI rather than reading locally - Cursor-based pagination is handled automatically; an
InvalidParamserror mid-pagination returns prior-page results with a warning rather than throwing - URI sanitization strips Unicode control characters, private-use codepoints, and bidirectional markers to prevent path confusion
Evidence
New mZi() directory-read function — search for "readMcpDirectory called on a server without directoryRead capability" and "resources/directory/read"
Strings lifted out of the shipped bundle, so the claim above can be checked against them.