mcp-client-integration

MCP Client Integration

Wire any MCP server into the client that will consume it — declaratively for IDEs, programmatically for custom apps.

When to Use

• Installing an MCP server into Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or Cursor
• Building a custom MCP client (web app, CLI, agent framework)
• Debugging "server failed to start" or "no tools showing up"
• Sharing MCP config across a team

Config File Locations

Client	Config path
Claude Desktop (macOS)	~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Claude Desktop (Windows)	%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Claude Code	~/.claude/settings.json (user) or .mcp.json (project)
Cursor	~/.cursor/mcp.json (user) or .cursor/mcp.json (project)

Declarative Install — stdio Server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_TOKEN": "${GITHUB_TOKEN}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Declarative Install — HTTP/SSE Server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "linear": {
      "url": "https://mcp.linear.app/sse",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${LINEAR_TOKEN}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code supports OAuth: omit headers and you'll be prompted to authenticate in-browser on first tool call.

Project-Scoped Config

Check a .mcp.json into the repo so teammates auto-inherit the right servers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "postgres-dev": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres", "postgresql://localhost/dev"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code reads this on startup. Add .mcp.json to .gitignore only if it contains secrets; otherwise commit it.

Programmatic Client — TypeScript

import { Client } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/client/index.js";
import { StdioClientTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/client/stdio.js";

const transport = new StdioClientTransport({
  command: "npx",
  args: ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"],
  env: { GITHUB_TOKEN: process.env.GITHUB_TOKEN! },
});

const client = new Client({ name: "my-app", version: "1.0.0" });
await client.connect(transport);

const tools = await client.listTools();
const result = await client.callTool({
  name: "create_issue",
  arguments: { repo: "owner/repo", title: "Bug", body: "..." },
});