Claude Desktop

4 min

Claude Desktop does not speak SSE. To connect it to the Litmus MCP server, run the server locally in STDIO mode and point Claude Desktop at the Python process.

Prerequisite: STDIO mode set up

Follow STDIO Mode first. It walks through cloning the repository, enabling STDIO, installing dependencies, and verifying the server runs.

You should end up with a working python3 src/server.py command that prints Starting Litmus MCP Server in STDIO mode.

1. Open the Claude Desktop config file

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add the server entry

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "litmus-mcp-server": {
      "command": "/path/to/.venv/bin/python3",
      "args": [
        "/absolute/path/to/litmus-mcp-server/src/server.py"
      ],
      "env": {
        "PYTHONPATH": "/absolute/path/to/litmus-mcp-server/src",
        "EDGE_URL": "https://<LITMUSEDGE_IP>",
        "EDGE_API_CLIENT_ID": "<oauth2_client_id>",
        "EDGE_API_CLIENT_SECRET": "<oauth2_client_secret>",
        "NATS_SOURCE": "<LITMUSEDGE_IP>",
        "NATS_PORT": "4222",
        "NATS_USER": "<access_token_username>",
        "NATS_PASSWORD": "<access_token_from_litmusedge>",
        "INFLUX_HOST": "<LITMUSEDGE_IP>",
        "INFLUX_PORT": "8086",
        "INFLUX_DB_NAME": "tsdata",
        "INFLUX_USERNAME": "<datahub_username>",
        "INFLUX_PASSWORD": "<datahub_password>"
      }
    }
  }
}

command should point at the Python interpreter for the project's venv (recommended) or any Python that has the project's dependencies installed.

args is the absolute path to src/server.py in the cloned repository.

3. Restart Claude Desktop

The Litmus tools should appear in the model's tool list. If they don't, check Claude Desktop's logs for the server's startup output.

Tips

For development that bridges differing MCP library versions (e.g., npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector vs litmus-mcp-server), always point command at the project's venv Python so you don't pick up system-wide MCP installs.

See claude_desktop_config_venv.example.json in the repository for a ready-to-edit template.

Reference

STDIO Mode - server-side setup.

Headers Reference - STDIO mode reads the same names from environment variables.

MCP transports (modelcontextprotocol.io)