# Ghostchars (npm · ghostchars)

Find and remove invisible Unicode: zero-width, tag smuggling, bidi, homoglyphs. Offline.

- Trust score: 81/100 (high trust)
- Change this week: +3
- Registry status: active
- Liveness: live
- Owner verified: no
- Last scored: 2026-10-24

## Components

- npm · `ghostchars`: 81/100 (this document), [markdown](https://verifymcp.io/servers/ghostchars-ghostchars/ghostchars.md), [page](https://verifymcp.io/servers/ghostchars-ghostchars/ghostchars)

## Channel facts

- Registry: `npm`
- Package: `ghostchars`
- Version: `1.0.2`
- Transport: `stdio`

## Trust breakdown

How this component scores in each security and reliability category. Every signal is checked automatically from public evidence about the published package, including repeated runs of it in an isolated sandbox, and we only credit what we can confirm. Scores are 0–100 per category. Scoring method: https://verifymcp.io/docs/scoring (what has changed: https://verifymcp.io/docs/scoring/changelog)

Scored 2026-10-24.

- **Supply Chain Security**: 100/100
  - No malware found by supply-chain analysis.
  - No known CVEs affecting this package version or its production dependencies.
  - No install/post-install scripts declared.
  - No production dependencies, so there is no dependency health to assess.
- **Provenance & Transparency**: 45/100
  - Source repository is publicly reachable at the declared URL.
  - Provenance check failed: no build-provenance attestation is published.
  - Clear OSI-approved license (MIT).
  - Actively maintained (last published 24 days ago).
  - Disclosure check failed: no security disclosure policy was found in the source repository.
- **Schema Quality & AI Usability**: 68/100
  - AI-judged instruction clarity (excellent).
  - Context-footprint check failed: tool/resource definitions use about 973 tokens (~243/item across 4 items; 4 tools + 0 resources), over budget; trim descriptions and params.
  - Usage-examples check failed: none of the tools include examples.
- **Stability & Change Management**: 83/100
  - Stability observed for 25 of 30 days with no destabilising changes; credit accrues until the full window elapses.
- **Tool Coverage**: 100/100
  - 100% of tools have a non-trivial description (not blank, and not just the tool's name).
  - 100% of tool parameters carry a description.
  - Structured output schemas are declared (100% of tools); any adoption earns full credit.
- **Tool Safety**: 100/100
  - No prompt-injection markers were found in the server instructions, tool names or descriptions we captured.
  - We read all 4 captured tool definition(s), and no name or description among them implies an irreversible operation.
  - An AI judge read all 5 captured unit(s) of tool text and found none that tries to manipulate the model reading it.
- **Capabilities**: 100/100
  - Implements a supported MCP spec version (2025-11-25); the latest is 2026-07-28.

## Install

### How do I install the Ghostchars MCP server?

Ghostchars runs locally as an npm package, launched with npx -y ghostchars. Ready-made configuration for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Codex and 5 more is on this page, copied from each client's own documentation.

### Claude

```bash
claude mcp add ghostchars-ghostchars -- npx -y ghostchars
```

### Cursor

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ghostchars-ghostchars": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "ghostchars"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

### VS Code

```json
{
  "servers": {
    "ghostchars-ghostchars": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "ghostchars"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

### Codex

```bash
codex mcp add ghostchars-ghostchars -- npx -y ghostchars
```

### opencode

```json
{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "mcp": {
    "ghostchars-ghostchars": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": [
        "npx",
        "-y",
        "ghostchars"
      ],
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}
```

### OpenClaw

```bash
openclaw mcp add ghostchars-ghostchars --command npx --arg -y --arg ghostchars
```

### Hermes

```yaml
mcp_servers:
  ghostchars-ghostchars:
    command: "npx"
    args: ["-y", "ghostchars"]
```

### Netclaw

```json
{
  "McpServers": {
    "ghostchars-ghostchars": {
      "Transport": "stdio",
      "Command": "npx",
      "Arguments": [
        "-y",
        "ghostchars"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

### Vellum

```bash
assistant mcp add ghostchars-ghostchars -t stdio -c npx -a -y ghostchars
```

### Other

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ghostchars-ghostchars": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "ghostchars"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

## Changelog

Every change recorded for this component, newest first. Days that predate change tracking, or that we cannot explain, say so: "we were watching and nothing happened" and "we were not watching" are different claims.

### 2026-10-24 (score 81, +1)

No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 80 to 83. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 24 days of observed history at the previous scan, 25 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

### 2026-10-22 (score 80, +1)

No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 73 to 77. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 22 days of observed history at the previous scan, 23 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

### 2026-10-19 (score 79, +1)

No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 63 to 67. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 19 days of observed history at the previous scan, 20 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

### 2026-10-17 (score 78, +1)

No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 57 to 60. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 17 days of observed history at the previous scan, 18 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

### 2026-10-15 (score 77, +1)

- [functional regression] Security disclosure: unverified → fail

### 2026-10-14 (score 76, 0)

- [functional regression] Security disclosure: fail → unverified

### 2026-10-13 (score 76, +1)

No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 43 to 47. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 13 days of observed history at the previous scan, 14 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

### 2026-10-12 (score 75, 0)

- [functional regression] Security disclosure: unverified → fail

## MCP tools (4)

### `clean_text` (~306 tokens)

Ghostchars: clean a piece of text. Removes invisible Unicode characters (zero-width spaces, word joiners, bidi controls, smuggled tag characters) and, at bar "text", normalises machine-writing typography to ASCII. Returns the whole cleaned text plus one finding per character it touched. Run it over any prose you are about to ship: documentation, a commit message, a pull request description, a release note, a UI string. Nothing leaves this machine.

Input parameters:

- `bar` (string): How hard to clean. "text" (the default) removes invisible characters and normalises typography: no-break spaces to plain spaces, em and en dashes, curly quotes and ellipsis characters to ASCII. Use "…
- `max_findings` (integer): Cap on the findings list and on the rewrite sites. The cleaned text is never truncated.
- `options` (object): Precise per-option overrides. The bar sets the baseline and these can only turn individual options on. Leave this out unless you need a specific option.
- `text` (string, required): The text to clean. Returned unchanged if it is already clean.

Output parameters:

- `changed` (boolean): True when cleaning would alter the text.
- `chars_after` (integer)
- `chars_before` (integer)
- `cleaned` (string): The full cleaned text. Omitted when changed is false.
- `findings` (array): One entry per suspicious character, in document order.
- `findings_total` (integer)
- `findings_truncated` (boolean)
- `options_applied` (array)
- `rewrite_sites` (array): Dash positions where rewriting the sentence beats the mechanical substitution.
- `rewrite_sites_total` (integer): How many rewrite sites the text holds, whether or not the list above was capped.
- `rewrite_sites_truncated` (boolean)
- `summary` (object)

### `inspect_text` (~268 tokens)

Ghostchars: list the suspicious characters in a piece of text without changing it. One row per character with line, column, codepoint, Unicode name, what the character is, and what a clean would do about it. Use it to see what is there before you decide, or to explain a finding to a person.

Input parameters:

- `bar` (string): How hard to clean. "text" (the default) removes invisible characters and normalises typography: no-break spaces to plain spaces, em and en dashes, curly quotes and ellipsis characters to ASCII. Use "…
- `max_findings` (integer): Cap on the findings list. The total is always reported.
- `options` (object): Precise per-option overrides. The bar sets the baseline and these can only turn individual options on. Leave this out unless you need a specific option.
- `text` (string, required): The text to examine. It is never modified.

Output parameters:

- `by_kind` (array)
- `clean` (boolean)
- `findings` (array): One entry per suspicious character, in document order.
- `returned` (integer)
- `summary` (object)
- `total` (integer)
- `truncated` (boolean)

### `style_report` (~100 tokens)

Ghostchars: measure the habits that make a draft read as machine written. Sentence-length uniformity, stock transitions, tell words, em dash density, tricolons, hedging, and missing specifics. This is not a detector: it does not decide whether a text was generated, and it emits no probability and no score. Use it to find the sentences worth rewriting.

Input parameters:

- `text` (string, required): The draft to measure. Prose, not code.

Output parameters:

- `bold_lead_bullets` (integer)
- `bullets` (integer)
- `contractions_per_1000` (number)
- `em_dashes_per_1000` (number)
- `first_person_per_1000` (number)
- `headings` (integer)
- `hedges_per_1000` (number)
- `not_x_but_y` (integer)
- `numbers_per_1000` (number)
- `observations` (array)
- `paragraph_shape` (object)
- `paragraphs` (integer)
- `proper_nouns_per_1000` (number)
- `sentence_initial_transitions` (object)
- `sentence_length` (object)
- `sentences` (integer)
- `summary` (object)
- `tell_density_per_1000` (number)
- `tell_phrases` (object)
- `tell_words` (object)
- `tricolons` (integer)
- `words` (integer)

### `check_paths` (~234 tokens)

Ghostchars: hold files on disk to a text-hygiene bar and report every file that would change, with exact character positions and the source line. This is the gate to run before committing. It reads only, and never writes.

Input parameters:

- `bar` (string): Which bar the gate holds files to. "default" fails only on invisible characters, which nothing legitimately needs. "text" also fails on machine-writing typography. There is no "max" gate bar: it woul…
- `config` (string): Path to a ghostchars.json. Auto-discovered if omitted.
- `max_files` (integer): Stop after this many files.
- `max_findings_per_file` (integer): Cap on the reported positions per failing file.
- `options` (object): Precise per-option overrides. The bar sets the baseline and these can only turn individual options on. Leave this out unless you need a specific option.
- `paths` (array, required): Files or directories to check, relative to the server root. Pass the single file you just edited when you want a fast answer.

Output parameters:

- `config`: The ghostchars.json that governed this run, or null when no config file was found and every file was held to the bar you asked for.
- `failures` (array)
- `files_failing` (integer)
- `files_scanned` (integer)
- `files_skipped` (integer)
- `ok` (boolean)
- `root` (string)
- `truncated` (boolean)

## Diagnostics

Captured diagnostic sections: Provenance, Dependencies. The full working is on the page: https://verifymcp.io/servers/ghostchars-ghostchars/ghostchars#diagnostics

## Score history

- 2026-10-24: 81
- 2026-10-23: 80
- 2026-10-22: 80
- 2026-10-21: 79
- 2026-10-20: 79
- 2026-10-19: 79
- 2026-10-18: 78
- 2026-10-17: 78
- 2026-10-16: 77
- 2026-10-15: 77
- 2026-10-14: 76
- 2026-10-13: 76
- 2026-10-12: 75
- 2026-10-11: 75
- 2026-10-04: 69
- 2026-10-03: 69
- 2026-10-02: 69
- 2026-10-01: 69
- 2026-09-30: 69
- 2026-09-29: 54

## Common questions

### What is the Ghostchars MCP server?

Ghostchars is an MCP server listed in the public MCP registry as io.github.ghostchars/ghostchars. Find and remove invisible Unicode: zero-width, tag smuggling, bidi, homoglyphs. Offline. This page covers its npm package (ghostchars).

### Is the Ghostchars MCP server safe to use?

Ghostchars scores 81 out of 100 on VerifyMCP. We found no known CVEs affecting it as of 24 October 2026. It declares no install or post-install scripts. That is a record of what we were able to check automatically, not an endorsement. The category breakdown on this page shows every signal behind the number, including the ones we could not confirm.

### What tools does the Ghostchars MCP server expose?

Ghostchars exposes 4 tools: clean_text, inspect_text, style_report, check_paths. Their descriptions and schemas cost roughly 908 tokens of context every time the server is loaded.

### Is the Ghostchars MCP server still maintained?

Ghostchars is still listed as active in the MCP registry. We last reached this channel on 24 October 2026. Those dates come from our own scans of the registry and the channel itself, not from anything the publisher announced.

### What licence is the Ghostchars MCP server under?

Ghostchars declares the MIT licence, which is OSI-approved. That covers the source only, and says nothing about the cost of any service it calls.

## Links

- npm package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/ghostchars
- Socket report: https://socket.dev/npm/package/ghostchars
- Repository: https://github.com/ghostchars/ghostchars
- Website: https://ghostchars.com/en/cli/
- Changelog RSS feed: https://verifymcp.io/servers/ghostchars-ghostchars/ghostchars.xml
- Changelog JSON feed: https://verifymcp.io/servers/ghostchars-ghostchars/ghostchars.json
- HTML version of this page: https://verifymcp.io/servers/ghostchars-ghostchars/ghostchars