---
title: MCP setup by client
description: Where the Laver config block lives in Claude Code, Claude Desktop and Cursor, how each client reloads it, and how to check the connection works.
section: Agents and API
order: 3
---

# MCP setup by client

The server is the same everywhere: `npx -y @laver/mcp` with your key in
`LAVER_API_KEY`. What differs between clients is where that configuration
lives and how the client picks it up — which is the part people actually get
stuck on. This page is those differences, one client at a time.
[MCP server](/docs/agents-and-api/mcp-server) covers what the server can do
once it is connected; you will need a key from **Admin → API keys** first, and
`npx` means the machine running the client needs Node installed.

One rule applies to every client on this page: **the configuration is read
when the server starts, not while it runs.** Editing it inside a session that
is already open changes nothing — restart the session or the app afterwards.

## Claude Code

One command, from your project directory:

```bash
claude mcp add laver -e LAVER_API_KEY=your-key-here -- npx -y @laver/mcp
```

By default that registers the server for you, in this project only. The
`--scope` flag chooses wider:

- `--scope user` — every project on this machine, still only you.
- `--scope project` — writes a `.mcp.json` at the project root, which is meant
  to be committed so the whole team gets the server. **Do not put the key in
  it.** Use `-e LAVER_API_KEY_FILE=/path/to/.env` instead of `-e
LAVER_API_KEY=…`, and let each person's gitignored `.env` carry their own
  `LAVER_API_KEY=…` line — a key acts as the person who created it, so sharing
  one literal key would make everyone's work attributable to whoever minted it.

`claude mcp list` shows what is registered and whether it connects; inside a
session, `/mcp` does the same.

## Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop reads a JSON file. **Settings → Developer → Edit Config** opens
it; on disk it is:

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

Add the server to it — if the file already has an `mcpServers` object, add
`"laver"` inside the existing one:

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "laver": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": ["-y", "@laver/mcp"],
            "env": { "LAVER_API_KEY": "your key here" }
        }
    }
}
```

Then quit Claude Desktop fully and reopen it — closing the window is not
always quitting the app, and a half-restart is the usual reason the tools do
not appear. The first start after adding the server is slower than the rest:
that is `npx` fetching the package once.

## Cursor

Same JSON shape, different file:

- One project: `.cursor/mcp.json` in the project root.
- Everywhere: `~/.cursor/mcp.json`.

Cursor also has a settings screen for this (**Cursor Settings → MCP**), which
writes the same files. As with Claude Code's `.mcp.json`, a project-level file
may end up committed — keep the key out of it with `LAVER_API_KEY_FILE`
pointing at a gitignored file that holds a `LAVER_API_KEY=…` line.

## Any other MCP client

Laver's server is a standard stdio MCP server, so any client that can run a
command can use it: command `npx`, arguments `-y @laver/mcp`, and
`LAVER_API_KEY` in the environment. There is no hosted endpoint — the server
runs next to the client and talks to `https://api.laver.app` itself — so a
client that only supports remote HTTP servers cannot connect directly.

## Checking it worked

Ask the assistant to list your Laver workspaces. `list_workspaces` takes no
arguments, so it is the cleanest first call: if it answers, the server is
running and the key is good. If it does not:

- **The tools are not offered at all** — the client has not started the
  server. Restart the session or the app; if that changes nothing, check the
  config file is the one the client actually reads and that `npx` is on the
  `PATH` the client launches with.
- **The key was rejected** — the refusal says so, verbatim: missing, mistyped,
  revoked, expired, or a placeholder never filled in. Mint a new key under
  **Admin → API keys** and restart the client.
- **A `403` naming another workspace** — working as designed. A key is
  confined to the one workspace it was created for, even if its owner belongs
  to others; create a second key for the second workspace.

From there, the [agent quickstart](/docs/agents-and-api/quickstart) is the
same ground without a client in the way, and
[concurrency and polling](/docs/agents-and-api/concurrency-and-polling) is
what to read before letting an agent write to a board people are using.