Connect to Clients

Connect your running NitroStack MCP server to AI clients including Claude Desktop, Cursor, Visual Studio Code, and ChatGPT.

Transport Selection

MCP supports two standard transport protocols:

1. Stdio (stdio): The client launches your server as a local child process communicating over standard input/output. Ideal for single-user desktop applications (Claude Desktop).
2. Streamable HTTP (http): The client communicates over HTTP POST and Server-Sent Events (SSE). Ideal for web clients, multi-user deployments, remote servers, and IDE network connections.

Client Configuration

1. Claude Desktop

To connect Claude Desktop to your local server over stdio:

1. Open your Claude Desktop configuration file:

   • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
   • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add your server under mcpServers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-server": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/my-server/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop. The hammer icon in the prompt input will display your registered tools.

2. Cursor

To connect Cursor to your NitroStack server:

Option A: Automated Configuration via CLI

In your project directory, run:

npx @nitrostack/cli cursor

Option B: Manual Configuration

Create or edit .cursor/mcp.json in your project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-server": {
      "url": "http://localhost:3000/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Start your server with npm run dev. Your tools will be discovered automatically in Cursor Composer.

3. Visual Studio Code

Connect via the official MCP extension:

1. Install the Model Context Protocol extension from the VS Code Marketplace.
2. In VS Code Settings, add your server configuration:

{
  "mcp.servers": {
    "my-server": {
      "url": "http://localhost:3000/mcp"
    }
  }
}

4. ChatGPT / Web & Remote Clients

Connect web agents or remote orchestrators over Streamable HTTP:

• Endpoint URL: http://localhost:3000/mcp (or your public HTTPS production URL)
• Content Type: application/json
• Protocol: JSON-RPC 2.0

When authentication is enabled (e.g. using ApiKeyModule or OAuthModule), pass the authorization credentials in standard headers:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: <YOUR_API_KEY>" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "tools/list", "id": 1}'

Verification Checklist

• Dev server is running on http://localhost:3000/mcp
• Client configuration JSON file contains valid absolute paths or URLs
• Client application was restarted after editing configuration
• Tools appear in the client's tools menu or prompt window

Next Steps

• Interactive UI Widgets: Return rich visual widgets to clients that support UI rendering.
• Authentication: Add API key or OAuth 2.1 protection.
• Deploy to Production: Deploy your server to Docker or cloud platforms.