Zovo Zip MCP Server

All servers · Buy Pro $19 · All 46 for $39 · Source

Two ways to run it, both free to start. Open mcp.zovo.one/mcp/connect, copy the zip URL and paste it into any client that takes a URL. It already carries a free token, so there is nothing to install, no account and no header to set. The URL is https://mcp.zovo.one/mcp/zip/t/<token>. The token is not optional: the bare https://mcp.zovo.one/mcp/zip connects and lists its tools and then answers every tool call with HTTP 401, so use the link from /mcp/connect or send Authorization: Bearer <token>. Or download zip.mcpb and double-click it in Claude Desktop.

mcp-zip

Make a zip, look inside one, and unpack one, in the conversation you are already in. Pack a folder with a glob (**/*.csv, everything except node_modules). Read the one README out of an archive without unpacking it. Ask what is inside a zip somebody sent you and be told before you open it: absolute paths, .., symlinks, duplicate names, and the entry that claims to be 200 MB inside a 199 KB file. Bundle a month of invoices, quotes and exports into one file to send to an accountant. Everything runs on your machine: no upload, no account, no API key, and no network call of any kind.

In the official MCP Registry (io.github.theluckystrike/zip-archive-create-extract-bomb-guard).

npm publish for @theluckystrike/mcp-zip is pending, so npx -y @theluckystrike/mcp-zip returns 404 today. Until then, the .mcpb one-click bundle or a clone+build is the working path.

Install

Claude Desktop, ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zip": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@theluckystrike/mcp-zip"] }
  }
}

Claude Code:

claude mcp add zip -- npx -y @theluckystrike/mcp-zip

Cursor, .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zip": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@theluckystrike/mcp-zip"] }
  }
}

Tools

tool	what it does
zip_create	Pack files, or a directory tree with glob patterns, into a new.zip
zip_list	Every entry with its size, compressed size and ratio, and everything dangerous in it, flagged
zip_extract	Unpack into a directory, with traversal, symlink and zip-bomb guards and a dry_run
zip_add	Add files to an archive that already exists
zip_extract_text	Read one text entry inline, without unpacking anything
zip_bundle_month	One month of invoices, quotes and exports from the sibling servers, in one file
zip_history	What you have created, and how much of this month's free allowance is left
license_status, license_activate	Free or Pro, and activating a key

Free vs Pro

	Free	Pro
Archives per calendar month	20	Unlimited
Archive size	Up to 25 MB	Unlimited
Entries per archive	Up to 200	Unlimited
Reading: zip_list, zip_extract, zip_extract_text	Unlimited	Unlimited
Bomb, traversal and symlink guards	Yes	Yes

Reading is never metered. The free tier is a limit on what you write, because an archive somebody sent you is exactly the one you most need to inspect before opening, and a paywall in front of that would be a paywall in front of the safety check.

Get Pro: https://mcp.zovo.one/buy/zip - $19 one time, or $39 for every server in the suite, lifetime. Keys verify offline; nothing is sent anywhere.

Why fflate and not a hand-written writer

The choice was fflate (pure JS, 0 dependencies, synchronous zipSync / inflateSync) against writing a STORE/DEFLATE writer on node:zlib, which is available with no dependency at all.

The container format is written here either way. This server reads the central directory itself, in src/zipfile.ts, roughly 200 lines: sizes, names, methods, CRCs, external attributes. It has to, because every guard in the server is a decision made from those headers before anything is inflated, and a library that hands back {name: bytes} has already decompressed the bomb by the time you can look at it. So the argument for a library was never "it saves me the format".

What is left is the compressor, and that is the part not to write. node:zlib would do it, but its raw-deflate calls are async-first, they carry a thread-pool round trip per call, and the sync ones each build a native stream; packing 200 small files is 200 of those. fflate's deflateSync is a pure-JS implementation with no native handle, it packs 200 files in 74 ms (measured below), and it means the package still has no native build step, which is the rule for this whole suite: npx has to work everywhere.

The trade is stated plainly: fflate builds the archive in one buffer, so this server refuses inputs over 512 MB rather than pretending to stream, and it does not read ZIP64 (over 4 GB or over 65,535 entries), which is refused by name rather than misread.

Measured: the file type does not predict the compression ratio, repetition does

Every file below was zipped at level 6 on this machine. The "type" column is what a person would call the file; the ratio is what actually happened.

file	type	bytes	zipped	ratio
a 12-page invoice from mcp-pdf	PDF	15,125	14,118	1.07x
a 400-paragraph contract from mcp-docx	DOCX	9,897	7,311	1.35x
4,000 rows of billing CSV, varied values	CSV	321,329	134,049	2.40x
this server's own index.ts	source	39,498	11,938	3.31x
package-lock.json	JSON	138,835	33,223	4.18x
20,000 lines of an app log	log	1,603,390	106,261	15.09x
4,000 rows of billing CSV, 40 repeated clients	CSV	338,549	4,094	82.69x
50 MB of zero bytes	bomb	52,428,800	51,294	1022x

PDF and DOCX barely move, and that is not a surprise once you look inside them: both are already deflate containers, so zipping them again is packaging, not compression. Bundling a month of invoices is worth doing for the one file, not for the space.

The two CSV rows are the interesting pair. Same tool, same shape, same size, 34x apart: the one with forty repeated client names compresses 82.69x, the one with unique values 2.40x. Nothing about "it is a CSV" predicts which one you have.

Measured: why the bomb ceiling is 100x and not 50x

A compression bomb is refused by ratio, and the obvious instinct is to set that ceiling low, well under the 1022x a zeros file reaches. The table above says why that is wrong: a real CSV export, of the kind zip_bundle_month collects from the expense tracker, reached 82.69x, which is 83% of the way to a 100x ceiling and well past a 50x one. A ceiling tuned to be comfortably below a bomb would refuse a real monthly export, and the person on the other end would learn to pass max_ratio on everything, which turns the guard off permanently.

So the ratio is the second guard, not the first. The first is the total: the selected entries' declared uncompressed sizes are added up and compared against a ceiling (1 GB by default, max_total_mb to change it), because 200 MB out of a 199 KB file is a decision you can make about the archive as a whole without judging any entry. Both are read from the central directory, so refusing a bomb costs no decompression at all:

refuse a 500 MB bomb (497.8 KB on disk)   3 ms, nothing inflated, out_dir not even created

Measured: a bounded output buffer is not a bomb guard

fflate.inflateSync(data, { out: new Uint8Array(n) }) looks like the whole answer: cap the buffer, cap the damage. It is not, and the way it fails is quiet. A 100,000-byte entry inflated into a 10-byte buffer returns 10 bytes and throws nothing. An archive whose header declares 10 bytes for a 100 KB entry would extract as a 10-byte file, reported as a success, with the truncation invisible.

So the buffer bounds the memory and the CRC-32 in the central directory proves the bytes. Every entry this server writes out is checksummed against the header before it reaches the disk, and a mismatch refuses the entry by name. That is the check that turns a lying header from silent data loss into a sentence.

Timings

M-series laptop, over stdio, per call, cold store:

operation	measured
zip_create, 200 files, 4.0 MB	74 ms
zip_list, 200 entries	2 ms
zip_extract, 200 entries	47 ms
zip_extract_text, one entry	1 ms
refuse a 500 MB bomb	3 ms
whole test suite, 38 tests, five files	3.9 s

Privacy

Everything stays on your machine. There is no network code in this server at all: no fetch, no HTTP client, no telemetry. Archives are written where you say, and a small register of what was created lives under ~/.local/share/mcp-servers/zip/ (or $XDG_DATA_HOME). License keys verify offline with a public key.

Zip passwords are not supported, and passing one is refused rather than ignored: the classic zip cipher is broken and AES zip encryption is a vendor extension no two tools agree on, so a "password protected" archive from here would be a false promise.

Built by theluckystrike. Support: support@zovo.one

First five minutes

One prompt that scored 3 of 3, measured in round 17, 2026-09-05. Paste it in as it is written.

Zip this month's invoices and quotes

Paste this into Claude with the server connected.

What it did, measured in round 17, 2026-09-05: 2026-09.zip, 2 entries, both invoice PDFs.

On the free tier for this path: 20 archives per calendar month, up to 25 MB and 200 entries each, and unlimited reading: zip_list, zip_extract and zip_extract_text are never metered, along with every bomb, traversal and symlink guard.

Or the 46-server bundle for $39.

Set it up in your client

Exact config path, entry and caveats: Claude Desktop · Claude Code · Cursor · VS Code · Windsurf · Cline · Claude.ai and Claude Desktop connectors · all clients

Guides

How to track billable hours inside Claude Code and Cursor · Create an invoice PDF from a chat message with an MCP server · Ask questions about an Excel or CSV file from Cursor or Claude · Watch a product price with Claude and get told when it drops · What the free tier includes and what Pro adds · Log expenses and mileage in Claude, split VAT, rebill to an invoice · Convert currencies in Claude with real ECB rates, no API key · Generate Word proposals and contracts from a chat message · Find a meeting time across time zones without doing the arithmetic · Write a resume and a cover letter from chat, without inventing anything · Bill a retainer on a schedule without a billing SaaS · Assemble a contract from your own clause library, in chat · Connect MCP servers to Claude.ai, Claude Desktop, Cursor and VS Code without installing anything · Merge, split and stamp PDFs from chat, and why some come back as glyph numbers · Read a.ics calendar in Claude: free and busy, conflicts, and billable meetings · Run a kanban board in Claude, with time tracking on the same task · Resize, compress and watermark images from a chat message · Categorize and reconcile a bank CSV export from chat · Send a quote from chat, then turn the yes into an invoice · Put a SEPA payment QR code on an invoice from chat · Zip and unzip archives safely from Claude or Cursor · Client deposits and retainers from chat, applied to your real invoices · Fixed assets and depreciation from chat, on the rates the tax authorities publish · Per diem and travel allowances from chat, on the rate tables the tax authorities publish · One double-entry ledger out of every server you already run · Loan and lease schedules from chat, closing exactly on zero · Work orders and job cards from chat, and why the markup goes on the unit cost · Price lists and rate cards from chat, and the 100x scale gap between the invoice and the quote · Change orders and the running contract value from chat, and why a changed line is two items · A petty cash float from chat, and why the cheque is not the sum of the vouchers · Client statements and payment chasers from chat, aged as at any date you name · Credit notes and purchase orders from chat, against your real invoices · One install, every server: the office-suite bundle · Close a month in chat: invoice, credit note, retainer, bank reconciliation, statement · MCP server not showing up in Claude Desktop: the six checks that find it · Where is claude_desktop_config.json, and what goes in it · claude mcp add: every flag, and the scope that silently loses your server · MCP servers on Windows: spawn npx ENOENT, backslashes and the PATH · Installing these MCP servers when npx does not work yet · Cursor MCP setup: mcp.json, the required type field, and where the servers appear · Which MCP servers work with no network at all · Invoicing an EU client with reverse charge, from a chat message · Quote, deposit, invoice, statement: the whole cycle in one conversation · Is this project making money? Hours against costs, without a spreadsheet · Building a tax year pack for your accountant from chat · Keeping a mileage log in chat, with the rate you actually claim · Reconciling a bank CSV against what you invoiced and spent · Rebilling client expenses, with a markup and the VAT handled honestly · Chasing an unpaid invoice: aging, then the letter · A bill of sale from chat, with the identifiers checked and the signature lines printed · Pricing a job from a rate card, and what to do when the scope changes · Working out your hourly rate from what you actually billed · Converting CSV to xlsx and back without opening Excel · Asking a spreadsheet questions in plain language · Merging a folder of receipts into one PDF from chat · Splitting one big scan into separate documents · Sending a month of paperwork as one archive, safely · MCP servers in VS Code: the one-word mistake that breaks every config · MCP servers in Windsurf and Cline: two defaults that waste an afternoon · Local MCP server or hosted URL: which one, and what you give up · What these MCP servers actually do on the free tier · Choosing an MCP server for invoicing: the seven questions worth asking · When you need an MCP server, and when a prompt is enough · MCP config file locations and JSON keys, every client · Why an MCP server does not appear, in order of likelihood · How MCP registry search actually works, measured · What is actually in the MCP registry: 6,000 rows counted · stdio or streamable HTTP: which MCP transport, and what breaks · MCP protocol versions: what each one changed · Every field in an MCP server config entry, by client · MCP config scopes: which definition wins when a server is defined twice · Where each MCP client writes its logs · Shipping an MCP server: a bundle to download or a URL to paste · What is inside a.mcpb MCP bundle · Charging for an MCP server: how licensing actually works · How much text an MCP server may return, and how much it may describe · What to check before letting an MCP server run · Why a directory says your hosted MCP server is not responding · The MCP registry binds one remote URL to one server name · Capital letters in your GitHub username change your MCP registry rank · How many MCP servers already have your word in the name · server.json field reference for the MCP registry · When an MCP tool fails, do not return a JSON-RPC error · structuredContent and outputSchema in MCP, and what MUST hold · Rules for naming an MCP tool, and the collision nobody plans for · MCP has no session, so how do two tool calls share state · x-mcp-header: mirroring tool parameters into HTTP headers · How a directory scores an MCP server, and why your worst tool decides it · What AI crawlers fetch that Googlebot does not, measured on 141 URLs · Search Console's URL Inspection API changes its answer between calls · Which MCP servers work by pasting a URL, with nothing installed · Where to find MCP servers that cost money, and how you actually pay · Getting an assistant to fill in a quote or estimate for a customer · Is there an MCP server for a petty cash book or a cash ledger · Currency conversion in an assistant, and which MCP server to use · Zipping and unzipping archives from an assistant, and what the guards do · Producing a delivery schedule or a work order document from a chat · Will an MCP server email the invoice to my client · Can an assistant read a photo of a receipt and log the expense · Which MCP server can generate invoice PDFs from a chat message? · Can an MCP server read a bank statement PDF and categorise the transactions? · Best MCP servers for small business accounting and paperwork in 2026 · MCP Supplier Directory: keep supplier lists from rotting in a spreadsheet · MCP Service Agreement: stop copying a rotting contract template off the internet · MCP Maintenance Log: know what service is due without anyone remembering · MCP Mileage Log: keep the deductible log at the moment of the drive, not in April · Invoice payment terms best practices: Net 30, due date and late fees · How to categorize bank transactions · Petty cash log template · All guides

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