Integration

Claude Desktop

Wire acf-mcp into Claude Desktop in under a minute. Local stdio config, no API key required.

iNote

Claude Desktop is Anthropic’s official desktop app (macOS and Windows). It supports MCP natively through a local JSON file.acf-mcp runs there over stdio: Claude spawns it for you via npx, no HTTP endpoint to provision.

Prerequisites

Node.js ≥ 18 (check with node --version)
Claude Desktop — claude.ai/download (macOS or Windows)

Install

Open the config file
The file is created on first launch. If it’s missing, create it.
bash
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Shortcut in-app: Claude → Settings → Developer → Edit Config.
Paste the configuration block
If the file already has MCP servers, add the acf entry to the existing mcpServers object.
claude_desktop_config.jsonjson
```
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "acf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "acf-mcp"]
    }
  }
}
```
Quit and relaunch Claude Desktop
Cmd+Q on macOS, close all windows then quit via the system tray on Windows. A window refresh does not reload the MCP config.

Verify

Look for the MCP icon at the bottom of the chat
A small hammer/tool icon appears under the input box. Click it: you should see acf listed with its tools (acf.advisor, acf.search, etc).
Ask for a signed smoke test
Type: “Use acf.advisor to assess governance of a B2B lead-qualification agent”.
The reply must contain a signed footer with doctrine_hash, doctrine_signature and generated_at.

Advanced config

Environment variables

Pass variables through the env field. All optional.

claude_desktop_config.jsonjson

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "acf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "acf-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "ACF_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}

ACF_LOG_LEVEL — log verbosity (debug | info | warn | error). Defaults to info.

Transport

Claude Desktop only supports stdio transport. For HTTP (multi-user, API-key auth), deploy acf-mcp behind a proxy and use another client (Cursor, Continue) — see /docs/authentication.

Troubleshooting

MCP icon does not appear. The JSON is invalid. Lint it with jq or any validator; a missing comma silently disables ALL MCP servers.
“Server disconnected” in Developer logs. npx cannot find Node. On macOS, launch Claude from Finder (not from a terminal that overrides PATH) and check that /usr/local/bin/node exists.

Tail the MCP logs. macOS:

bash

tail -f ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp*.log

Windows:

powershell

Get-Content -Path "$env:APPDATA\Claude\logs\mcp*.log" -Wait

The agent ignores the tool. Name the tool explicitly in the prompt (“use acf.advisor…”). Claude picks its tools; sometimes it needs a nudge on the first try.
First run is slow. npx downloads the package on first run (~3–10 s). Subsequent runs hit the cache.

Prerequisites

Install

Open the config file

Paste the configuration block

Quit and relaunch Claude Desktop