claude-mcp-config-manager

An MCP App you install into Claude Desktop that gives you an inline UI for editing claude_desktop_config.json — add, remove, and update MCP server entries without opening the file in a text editor.

What it does

• One model-visible tool: open-mcp-config-manager — opens the panel.

• The panel then:

  • reads the current config (path resolved per-OS)

  • shows each server as an editable card (name, command, args, env)

  • lets you add servers from templates (filesystem, github, sqlite, postgres, memory) or blank

  • saves back with an atomic write and a timestamped backup of the previous file

  • Save & restart Claude — after a successful save it automatically quits and relaunches Claude Desktop so the new config takes effect

• Non-mcpServers keys in the JSON are preserved verbatim.

Related MCP server: MCP Server Generator

Security notes

• The model cannot see your existing server list, args, or env vars — the read/write/restart tools are marked visibility: ["app"], so only the UI (which you, the user, drive) can call them.

• Every write is triggered by clicking Save & restart Claude in the panel. The model has no way to add a rogue MCP server behind your back, and no way to restart the app on its own.

• Every save writes a claude_desktop_config.json.bak.<timestamp> next to the file first, so you can always roll back.

OS support

Works on macOS, Windows (installer and Microsoft Store builds), and Linux (community Claude Desktop builds; XDG_CONFIG_HOME is honored when set). The config path, the running-status check, and the save-and-restart flow each have per-OS implementations:

• macOS — graceful osascript quit, force-kill of leftovers, relaunch via open -a Claude.

• Windows — graceful window close then Stop-Process; relaunch via the Start Menu app alias (covers Store and installer builds), falling back to the exe that was running, then %LOCALAPPDATA%\AnthropicClaude\claude.exe.

• Linux — remembers the running binary's path before killing so it can relaunch exactly what ran; falls back to claude-desktop / claude on PATH, then the desktop entry via gtk-launch.

Install into Claude Desktop

Requires Node.js 18+.

Automatic (recommended):

npx -y claude-mcp-config-manager install

or, if you prefer a global install, npm install -g claude-mcp-config-manager — its postinstall hook registers the app the same way.

Either way the app lands in claude_desktop_config.json as an npx -y entry (idempotent; existing servers and settings are preserved, a timestamped backup is kept, and a config file with invalid JSON is never touched). Restart Claude Desktop and say "Open the MCP config manager". On first use Claude Desktop asks once to allow the app's tools — that prompt is the host's own consent step and can't be pre-approved by an installer. install can be run again at any time, e.g. to re-add the app after an uninstall. Set MCP_CONFIG_MANAGER_NO_AUTOCONFIG=1 to npm install without touching the config.

A bare npx -y claude-mcp-config-manager (no install) is not a reliable way to register: npx runs the postinstall hook only the first time it fills its cache, shows none of its output, and on every later run just starts the server and waits on stdin.

Manual (alternative):

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json yourself:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json Windows (Microsoft Store install): %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_*\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "config-manager": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "claude-mcp-config-manager"]
    }
  }
}

(On Windows, use "command": "npx.cmd" if plain npx fails to spawn.)

Uninstall

npx -y claude-mcp-config-manager uninstall
npm uninstall -g claude-mcp-config-manager

The first command removes the app's entry from claude_desktop_config.json (every other server and setting is kept, a timestamped backup is written first, and a file with invalid JSON is never touched); restart Claude Desktop afterwards. The second removes the package (skip it if you never installed globally). The order doesn't matter — npx -y fetches the package again if it's already gone, which is also why removing the config entry is the step that actually matters: the npx -y entry keeps working without the global install. To put the app back later, run npx -y claude-mcp-config-manager install.

npm uninstall alone can't do this. npm 7 and later don't run a package's preuninstall/postuninstall scripts at all (by design — see "A Note on a lack of npm uninstall scripts" in npm's docs). On npm 6 the package's preuninstall hook runs the same cleanup automatically; MCP_CONFIG_MANAGER_NO_AUTOCONFIG=1 skips it there too.

Installed from source? node dist/server.js uninstall in the checkout also removes entries that point at that checkout's dist/server.js.

Build from source

npm install
npm run build

Produces:

• dist-ui/mcp-app.html — the bundled single-file UI

• dist/server.js — the compiled MCP server (stdio transport)

Point your config at it with "command": "node", "args": ["/absolute/path/to/dist/server.js"] — node dist/server.js install writes exactly that entry for you — or run npm install -g . and use the claude-mcp-config-manager command.

Restart Claude Desktop. Then, in a chat:

Open the MCP config manager.

Claude will call open-mcp-config-manager, the panel appears, edit, click Save & restart Claude. The config is written, then Claude Desktop quits and relaunches itself with the new servers loaded. Done.

The one caveat

Claude Desktop reads claude_desktop_config.json on startup, which is why the Save button restarts the app for you: a detached helper process (which survives the quit) closes Claude Desktop gracefully, force-kills any leftovers, and relaunches it — via the Store app alias or the installer exe on Windows, osascript/open -a on macOS. Your current chat reopens when the app comes back; unsaved panel edits do not.

The panel marks its own entry with a this app badge and disables its Delete button — removing it and saving would make the panel unavailable on the next launch. If you really want it gone, run claude-mcp-config-manager uninstall (see Uninstall); timestamped backups cover accidents either way.

Files