Installing an MCP server in Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop reads MCP server configuration from a single JSON file. The flow is: edit the file, restart the app, confirm the tools show up.

1. Locate the config

• macOS — ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows — %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add a server entry

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "/Users/me/Documents"]
    }
  }
}

3. Restart Claude

Fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop. The hammer icon at the bottom of the input box should now show the server's tools.

4. Verify

Ask Claude something concrete that requires the tool — "list the files in my Documents folder" — and confirm it actually invokes the server. If nothing happens, check the developer logs from the Claude menu.