Configuring Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop connects to the ScaleOut MCP server by using mcp-remote, a utility that allows desktop MCP clients to communicate with MCP servers over HTTP. This utility is installed by default with Claude Desktop.

Prerequisites

On one of the Active Caching hosts, you will need to install:

  • Node.js (version 22.19 and above): the Node.js installation includes npx, which Claude Desktop uses to launch mcp-remote.

  • Claude Desktop

Open the Claude Desktop Configuration

To configure the MCP server:

  1. Open Claude Desktop.

  2. Open File -> Settings.

  3. Select Developer.

  4. Click Edit Config.

This opens the Claude Desktop MCP configuration file. On Windows, the file is normally located at:

%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

If the configuration file does not already contain an mcpServers object, you will add one.

Add the following entry to the mcpServers section of the Claude Desktop configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "Scaleout-mcp": {
            "command": "npx.cmd",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "mcp-remote@latest",
                "https://localhost:7701/mcp/",
                "16962",
                "--static-oauth-client-info",
                "{\"client_id\":\"McpRemote\"}"
            ],
            "env": {
                "NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED": "0"
            }
        }
    }
}

The configuration parameters have the following purposes:

Parameter

Description

-y

Allows npx to install or update the mcp-remote package without prompting for confirmation.

mcp-remote@latest

Runs the latest available version of mcp-remote.

https://localhost:7701/mcp/

Specifies the ScaleOut MCP server endpoint.

16962

Specifies the local port used by mcp-remote for the OAuth redirect callback. This port corresponds to the redirect URI configured for the McpRemote OAuth client.

--static-oauth-client-info

Supplies the OAuth client information for the pre-registered MCP client. ScaleOut registers the client with the client ID McpRemote. The client information is provided as a JSON string immediately after this parameter.

Note

The ScaleOut installer includes a self-signed certificate for evaluation and local testing. The environment variable shown above allow the Node.js process used by mcp-remote to connect to an MCP server using this certificate.

NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=0 disables normal TLS certificate verification and should only be used with the demonstration certificate in a trusted environment.

For production use, replace the supplied demonstration certificate with a certificate issued by your organization’s trusted certificate authority. After installing a properly trusted certificate, you will instead use the NODE_USE_SYSTEM_CA variable to allow Node to use the Windows trusted certificates.

Restart Claude Desktop

Save the configuration file and completely restart Claude Desktop (File->Exit).

When Claude Desktop starts, it launches mcp-remote, which connects to the ScaleOut MCP endpoint. The first connection may open a web browser to complete the OAuth authentication flow.

After authentication succeeds, the ScaleOut MCP tools become available to Claude and can be used as part of agentic workflows or normal conversations.

Troubleshooting

If Claude Desktop does not connect to the MCP server, verify the following:

  • The ScaleOut service is running and the MCP endpoint is available at https://localhost:7701/mcp/.

  • Node.js is installed and npx.cmd is recognized as a valid command.

  • The OAuth callback port 16962 is not being used by another application.

  • The JSON syntax in claude_desktop_config.json is valid.

Logs are also accessible in the Developer Settings section of Claude Desktop.

After modifying the configuration, restart Claude Desktop before testing the connection again.