MCP Servers for Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop reads its servers from ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. Of the 54 394 we track, 20 798 answer right now without any credentials, 8 428 sign you in through the browser and 3 298 want an API key you paste into the config. The blocks below are ready to paste — each is built from the address we actually reached, in the format this client expects.

What 54 394 servers look like from Claude Desktop

Work as is answering now, no credentials asked 20 798 38.2%

Browser sign-in you authorise once, the client keeps the session 8 428 15.5%

Need a key you paste a key from the vendor into the config 3 298 6.1%

Run locally installed from a package, nothing to reach over the network 14 911 27.4%

Not responding listed as active, answer nothing 6 963 12.8%

Availability, last 24 hours share of the 39 483 remote servers answering, hour by hour

24 hours agonow

20 798

work with no key

answering now and open to anonymous clients

8 428

you authorise once, the client keeps the session

3 298

need an API key

you paste a key from the vendor into the config

14 911

run on your machine

installed from npm or PyPI, no uptime to measure

6 963

listed but dead

skip these — the registry still calls them active

How to add a server to Claude Desktop

one file for the whole app

Open the config file

It sits inside the application support folder, which Finder hides by default.

open ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Paste the server block

For a local server it is the same JSON shape Cursor uses. A remote server does not go here: add it under Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector and paste its address.

Restart the app

Not just the conversation, the whole application: the config is read once at launch.

What it looks like

a real server, not a placeholder

Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, then paste this address Browser Use →

https://api.browser-use.com/v3/mcp

Servers to start with

all 54 394 in the catalogue →

Browser Use

by browser-use

Browser agents and stealth cloud browsers for AI: run web tasks, fill forms, extract data.

1 553 680 installs/wk 7 tools answering

Playwright MCP

by microsoft

Playwright Tools for MCP

10 560 609 installs/wk local only

Firebase MCP

by firebase

Gives AI development tools Firebase-specific capabilities and expertise.

4 737 199 installs/wk local only

Storybook MCP Addon

by storybookjs

Help agents automatically write and test stories for your UI components.

3 446 933 installs/wk local only

Context7

by upstash

Up-to-date docs for AI agents

741 246 installs/wk 2 tools answering

Chrome DevTools MCP

by chromedevtools

MCP server for Chrome DevTools

1 865 622 installs/wk local only

color-space

by colorjs

Conversions across 221 color spaces, tested against cited sources: CSS strings, gamut, LUTs

1 240 890 installs/wk local only

Firecrawl MCP Server

by firecrawl

Firecrawl, the context API for AI agents: search, scrape, interact with the web, plus paper search.

168 149 installs/wk 3 tools answering

Hermoso

by hermoso-ai

AI marketing agent and AI ad generator: 1178 tools, usable alone. No model markup on Starter and up.

10 063 installs/wk 205 tools answering

Snyk

by snyk

Easily find and fix security issues in your applications leveraging Snyk platform capabilities.

786 011 installs/wk local only

Telnyx

by team-telnyx

Official TypeScript library for the Telnyx API

785 632 installs/wk local only

e2e

by tester-army

Open live web and mobile app sessions from an e2e project to inspect the app and try locators.

727 878 installs/wk local only

Browse all 54 394 servers the list is the same for every client — only the config differs

Things that trip people up with Claude Desktop

Written from how Claude Desktop reads its config, not from its release notes.

Available in every conversation

There is no per-project scope here. A server added once is loaded for everything you do in the app, which is convenient and worth being deliberate about.

Restart actually means restart

Closing the window is not enough on macOS — the process keeps running and the file is not re-read. Quit properly, then reopen.

Where is the file if it does not exist yet?

It is created the first time settings are saved, and the folder it lives in is hidden by default. Creating it by hand at the same path works just as well.

Can blocks from Cursor or VS Code be reused?

For local servers, a Cursor block works as is: the JSON shape is identical, only the file path and the scope of the settings differ. A VS Code block needs rewrapping, since it keeps servers under servers rather than mcpServers and gives each a type. Remote servers are added under Settings → Connectors instead of the file.

Why does a server work for one person and not another?

Local servers run with the permissions and environment of whoever launched them. A missing key in the environment or a path that exists on one machine and not another produces a server that looks broken but is not.

How many of the servers out there actually work?

Of the 19 757 published in the official registry, 7 875 answer a real handshake. The rest are either local — with nothing to reach over the network — or listed as active while responding to nothing.

Same servers, other clients

the servers are the same — the config format is not

Windsurf

Editor with the agent built in. Takes stdio, streamable HTTP and SSE, and can carry an OAuth login for each of the three.

~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

Cline

Autonomous agent living inside VS Code. Handles local processes and remote endpoints over streamable HTTP or SSE, but authorisation is on you — through headers or environment variables.

~/.cline/mcp.json

Gemini CLI

Google's command-line agent. Takes all three transports and carries a full OAuth flow for remote servers, including service-account impersonation.

~/.gemini/settings.json

JetBrains AI Assistant

Built into the JetBrains IDEs. Configured through the settings dialog rather than a file, and it can import a config you already wrote for another client.

Settings | Tools | AI Assistant | Model Context Protocol

OpenCode

Open-source terminal agent. Local and remote servers sit in the same mcp object, told apart by a type field, and tokens are kept outside the config.

opencode.json in the project, or ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json

Claude Code

Adds servers by command, so nothing to edit by hand. Handles both local processes and remote endpoints, including OAuth logins.

run in your terminal

Cursor

Config sits in the project folder, so servers can differ per repository — useful when one project needs database access and another must not have it.

.cursor/mcp.json

VS Code

Works through GitHub Copilot's agent mode. Like Cursor, the config is per workspace rather than global.

.vscode/mcp.json

Codex

The only client here that uses TOML rather than JSON, so a config copied from elsewhere will not work as is.

~/.codex/config.toml