Use MCP servers in Claude Desktop with Toolport
Toolport is a free, open source local MCP gateway. Add your servers to Toolport once, flip the Claude Desktop toggle, and Claude Desktop gets all of them through a single gateway entry. Toolport picks a full tool list or search for each client, and you can change it in Clients.
Setup
- Download Toolport for Windows, macOS or Linux, and add your MCP servers to it (or import the ones your other AI agents already have; secrets go to your OS keychain).
- Open the Clients tab and toggle Claude Desktop on. Toolport writes its gateway entry into Claude Desktop's config, next to anything already there.
- Restart or reload Claude Desktop. Your full server set is available through Toolport, and any server you add later shows up without touching Claude Desktop again.
Where Claude Desktop keeps its MCP config
Claude Desktop MCP config
Windows %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json macOS ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Linux ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
JSON with a top-level mcpServers object.
Good to know
- Claude Desktop on Windows is MSIX-packaged, which virtualizes %APPDATA% for some processes. Toolport reads and writes the real user-profile path, so the config it manages is the one Claude actually loads.
Why a gateway instead of Claude Desktop's own server list?
- One setup, every agent. The same servers work in Claude Desktop and every other AI agent on your machine; add a server once and they all get it.
- Secrets in the OS keychain. API keys are injected at runtime and never sit in Claude Desktop'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.
Free on this machine. Pro puts it on every machine. Team gives it to everyone.