Use MCP servers in Claude Code with Toolport
Toolport is a free, open source local MCP gateway. Add your servers to Toolport once, flip the Claude Code toggle, and Claude Code gets all of them through a single gateway entry, with lazy discovery loading 3 meta-tools instead of every server's full tool list.
Setup
- Download Toolport for Windows, macOS or Linux, and add your MCP servers to it (or import the ones your clients already have; secrets go to your OS keychain).
- Open the Clients tab and toggle Claude Code on. Toolport writes its gateway entry into Claude Code's config, next to anything already there.
- Restart or reload Claude Code. Your full server set is available through Toolport, and any server you add later shows up without touching Claude Code again.
Where Claude Code keeps its MCP config
- All platforms
~/.claude.json
JSON with a top-level mcpServers object in Claude Code's global config.
Good to know
- The gateway is added globally, so every project sees your servers without per-repo .mcp.json files. Project-scoped servers keep working alongside it.
Why a gateway instead of Claude Code's own server list?
- One setup, every client. The same servers work in Claude Code and every other client on your machine; add a server once and they all get it.
- Up to 91% fewer tool tokens. Instead of every server dumping its tool list into context, the agent loads 3 meta-tools and searches on demand (measured).
- Secrets in the OS keychain. API keys are injected at runtime and never sit in Claude Code's config file.
- Watched by default. Rug-pull and tool-poisoning detection on every tool, plus per-tool governance and a destructive-tool kill switch. How the security works.