Claude Code

Hub: documentation home · Integrations.

Claude Code is a different MCP host from Claude Desktop. It does not read claude_desktop_config.json.

Scope	File	Who sees it
Project (share with the team)	.mcp.json at the repo root	Everyone who clones the repo
User (all your projects)	~/.claude.json → top-level mcpServers	Only you
Local (this project, private)	~/.claude.json under the project entry	Only you, this directory

~/.claude/settings.json is not the MCP file.

Fast path

vectorsmith must be on your PATH (pip install "vectorsmith[qdrant]").

claude mcp add invoices --scope project -- \
  vectorsmith serve /absolute/path/tools.invoices.yaml \
  --env-file /absolute/path/.env --name invoices

claude mcp add tickets --scope project -- \
  vectorsmith serve /absolute/path/tools.tickets.yaml \
  --env-file /absolute/path/.env --name tickets

Already configured Desktop on macOS/WSL:

claude mcp add-from-claude-desktop

Project .mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "invoices": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "vectorsmith",
      "args": [
        "serve",
        "examples/qdrant_invoices/tools.invoices.yaml",
        "--env-file",
        "examples/qdrant_invoices/.env.example",
        "--name",
        "invoices"
      ]
    },
    "tickets": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "vectorsmith",
      "args": [
        "serve",
        "examples/qdrant_invoices/tools.tickets.yaml",
        "--env-file",
        "examples/qdrant_invoices/.env.example",
        "--name",
        "tickets"
      ]
    }
  }
}

${VAR} in tools.yaml is filled from --env-file (see args above), not from a host env map. Keep secrets in that file or the environment inside the env file.

HTTP (shared / remote)

vectorsmith serve tools.invoices.yaml --name invoices \
  --http 127.0.0.1:8080 --auth none

claude mcp add --transport http invoices http://127.0.0.1:8080/mcp

--auth none is localhost-only. The MCP path is /mcp. HTTP serve does not watch/reload YAML. Public URL: self-host.

In-app Claude (Python)

If you are calling the Anthropic API yourself, do not use serve. Use Anthropic Messages.