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Claude Desktop does not support direct HTTP MCP connections, so you connect it to MCPJungle through the mcp-remote bridge package. Once configured, Claude can discover and call every tool registered in your gateway from a single entry in its MCP servers config.

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Prerequisites

  • MCPJungle running at http://localhost:8080 (or your deployment URL)
  • Node.js installed (required to run npx)
  • Claude Desktop installed

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Configure Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop reads its MCP server configuration from a JSON file on disk.
1

Find the config file

Open the Claude Desktop configuration file for your operating system:
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
If the file does not exist, create it.
2

Add MCPJungle as an MCP server

Add the following to claude_desktop_config.json:
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcpjungle": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-remote",
        "http://localhost:8080/mcp",
        "--allow-http"
      ]
    }
  }
}
The --allow-http flag is required because mcp-remote enforces HTTPS by default. You need this flag when connecting to a local MCPJungle instance over plain HTTP.
3

Restart Claude Desktop

Quit and reopen Claude Desktop. It will launch the mcp-remote process on startup and establish a connection to MCPJungle.
4

Test the connection

In a new conversation, ask Claude to list available tools:
What MCP tools do you have access to?
Claude will query MCPJungle and return the full list of tools from all registered servers. You can then invoke any tool directly in the conversation.

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Enterprise mode (authentication)

If your MCPJungle instance runs in enterprise mode, you must create an MCP client and pass its access token in the Authorization header. First, create a client with the MCPJungle CLI: 
mcpjungle create mcp-client claude-desktop --allow "server1, server2"
Then pass the token to mcp-remote using the --header flag: 
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcpjungle": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-remote",
        "http://localhost:8080/mcp",
        "--allow-http",
        "--header",
        "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
      ]
    }
  }
}
Replace YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN with the token printed by mcpjungle create mcp-client.
In enterprise mode, a client can only see and call tools from the servers it was explicitly granted access to. If Claude reports no tools available, verify that the --allow flag included the correct server names when you created the client.

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Limit tools with Tool Groups

As you register more MCP servers, the total number of tools visible to Claude can grow large. Too many tools can degrade Claude’s response quality and increase latency. Use Tool Groups to create a curated subset of tools and point Claude at the group-specific endpoint instead of the main gateway: 
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcpjungle": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-remote",
        "http://localhost:8080/v0/groups/claude-tools/mcp",
        "--allow-http"
      ]
    }
  }
}
Run mcpjungle list tools to see all available tools, then cherry-pick the ones Claude actually needs when creating a group.