Connect an AI client
Connect Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, opencode or another MCP client to the platform, so that an AI assistant can work with your resources as you.
An AI assistant that speaks the Model Context Protocol (MCP) can read and manage the platform on your behalf. It connects to the platform's MCP server at https://api.example.com/mcp.
Before you start
The MCP interface is off until a platform administrator turns it on — see Turn on AI clients. Until then no client can connect.
The Codex configuration, and the configuration-file route for Claude Desktop, run a small bridge
through npx, so they need Node.js on your computer.
Open the setup page
Choose Help (the question mark in the header) and then AI clients, or search the header for "AI", "MCP" or "Claude". The page is filled in with this installation's own address, and anyone who can sign in can open it.
If the page shows a warning instead of configuration, the portal has not been told the API's address. An operator has to set it; there is nothing you can change.
Configure your client
The page has a tab per client. Copy from the page rather than from an example — the page carries this installation's address.
| Tab | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Claude Code | A command to run in your terminal |
| Claude Desktop | Two routes, below |
| Codex | Configuration for ~/.codex/config.toml |
| opencode | Configuration for ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json |
| Config file | A generic MCP configuration for other clients |
| Server URL | The bare address |
For Claude Code, the command is:
claude mcp add --transport http stackship https://api.example.com/mcpClaude Desktop takes one of two routes, depending on your version:
- If your version has custom connectors — open Settings, find Connectors, and add a custom connector with the address. Claude Desktop handles the sign-in itself.
- Otherwise, bridge it — add the bridge configuration from the page to
claude_desktop_config.json: on macOS in~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, on Windows in%APPDATA%\Claude\. Quit and reopen Claude Desktop afterwards; it reads the file only at startup.
Sign in
There is no token to create, copy or store. The first time your client calls the platform it opens a browser window, and you sign in with your normal account, as you do in the portal.
Before that, the client has to be known to the platform's sign-in, and that depends on the configuration:
- Codex and Claude Desktop's configuration file go through the bridge, which signs in with a client the platform provides, so nothing has to be registered.
- Claude Code, opencode, the Config file tab and Claude Desktop's custom connector register a
client of their own the first time they connect. The platform refuses that registration unless
a platform administrator has allowed the host the client returns you to after sign-in:
localhostand127.0.0.1for a client on your computer,claude.aifor Claude Desktop's connector. That list starts empty — see Allow clients to register.
What the assistant can do
The assistant acts as you: it calls the platform with your own sign-in, so it can do what you can do and nothing more, and a change it makes is recorded against your account as if you had made it in the portal. Permissions are granted per boundary, so if an assistant says it cannot do something, a missing permission is the likely reason.
The server offers these tools:
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
whoami |
Who you are signed in as |
list_boundaries |
The boundaries you can see |
search_operations |
Finds platform API calls that match a task |
describe_operation |
Shows how to make one of those calls |
invoke_operation |
Makes an API call as you — reads and changes |
search_docs |
Searches this platform's documentation |
read_doc |
Reads a documentation page |
The two documentation tools need the platform's documentation service; on a platform without it they answer that documentation is not available.
If it will not connect
- The interface is off. The server answers every request with
404andmcp_disabled. Ask a platform administrator to turn it on. - The configuration is wrong. Copy it again from the setup page.
- Sign-in is refused, often before a browser window opens. A client that registers itself —
Claude Code, opencode, the Config file configuration, Claude Desktop's connector — is refused
unless the host it returns you to is on the platform's list of hosts allowed to register a
client; the error may mention
Policy 'Trusted Hosts' rejected request. Ask a platform administrator to addlocalhostand127.0.0.1, orclaude.aifor the connector. The Codex and Claude Desktop configuration-file routes do not register and are not affected. - The bridge does not start. Install Node.js, which provides
npx.