Using Locally with Claude Desktop

Install

Locally can register the MCP server with Claude Desktop for you:

Claude Desktop will then need to be restarted to pick up the new MCP server.

Use the --force flag to overwrite an existing entry, which is useful in scripts or when updating an existing entry:

To check the registration status across all supported clients on your machine:

This will show each supported client as one of:

• not installed - the client is not installed on this machine.
• installed (no locally entry) - the client is installed but has no Locally MCP server entry.
• installed (locally entry registered) - the client is installed and the Locally MCP server is configured.

Manual Configuration

If you'd rather configure the MCP server yourself, edit Claude Desktop's configuration file. You can open it from Claude Desktop by going to Settings, then Developer, then Edit Config - or find it at:

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

Then add Locally to the mcpServers section:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "locally": {
      "command": "/path/to/locally",
      "args": [
        "mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Replace /path/to/locally with the absolute path to the locally binary (which you can find by running which locally on macOS, or where locally on Windows). Claude Desktop doesn't use your shell's PATH, so a bare locally may not be found.

Claude Desktop will need to be restarted to pick up the new MCP server.

Uninstall

To remove the Locally MCP server from Claude Desktop's configuration:

If no Locally entry is present, the command will fail. Use the --force flag to make removal idempotent, which is useful in scripts:

Next steps

The MCP Server page lists the tools Claude can use, from deploying templates to managing Key Vault Secrets. You can check what Claude has created in the Locally Dashboard.