📌Overview

Purpose: The MCP Server Gateway serves as a protocol translator that allows the Claude Desktop application, which natively supports only stdio-based MCP implementations, to communicate with HTTP/SSE-based MCP servers.

Overview: This gateway addresses the compatibility gap between the stdio protocol used by Claude Desktop and the commonly utilized HTTP/SSE transport in many MCP servers. By facilitating seamless interaction between these differing protocols, the gateway expands the functionality and interoperability of Claude Desktop with a wide range of MCP servers.

Key Features:

Protocol Translation: Converts stdio input from Claude Desktop into HTTP/SSE requests that can be understood by MCP servers, ensuring compatibility and enhanced communication capabilities.
Response Handling: Translates SSE responses from the MCP servers back into stdio format, allowing Claude Desktop to process the incoming data as if it were received from a native stdio interface.

MCP Server Gateway

A gateway service that bridges the stdio-based Model Context Protocol (MCP) implementation in Claude Desktop with HTTP/SSE-based MCP servers. This resolves the protocol compatibility gap since Claude Desktop currently only supports stdio-based MCP servers. See the discussion here.

Why This Gateway?

Claude Desktop currently only supports the stdio protocol for MCP servers, while many MCP servers use HTTP with Server-Sent Events (SSE) transport. This gateway acts as a protocol translator, allowing Claude Desktop to communicate with any HTTP/SSE MCP server by:

Accepting stdio input from Claude Desktop
Converting and forwarding requests to HTTP/SSE MCP servers
Converting SSE responses back to stdio format for Claude Desktop

Installation

Install the gateway globally using npm:

npm install -g @mcphub/gateway

Configuration

1. Find the Gateway Path

After installation, find where npm installed the gateway using these commands:

npm root -g

The gateway will be located at:

<npm_global_root>/@mcphub/gateway/dist/src/mcphub-gateway.js

Common global package locations:

macOS (Homebrew Node): /opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/@mcphub/gateway/dist/src/mcphub-gateway.js
macOS (default): /usr/local/lib/node_modules/@mcphub/gateway/dist/src/mcphub-gateway.js
Windows: %AppData%\npm\node_modules\@mcphub\gateway\dist\src\mcphub-gateway.js

Verify the installation and path:

npm list -g @mcphub/gateway

2. Configure Claude Desktop

Create or update your Claude Desktop configuration file.

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude Desktop/config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude Desktop\config.json

Add this configuration, replacing the path in args with your actual gateway path:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "server-name": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/@mcphub/gateway/dist/src/mcphub-gateway.js"]
    }
  }
}

3. Configure MCP Server Connection

Set the MCP server URL via an environment variable:

export MCP_SERVER_URL=https://your-mcp-server.com/api/mcp

By default, the gateway connects to the MCP Hub server at https://server.mcphub.ai/api/mcp, which provides access to various pre-configured MCP services.

4. Start Claude Desktop

Start or restart Claude Desktop to apply the changes.

Troubleshooting

To find the gateway path:

npm list -g
npm list -g @mcphub/gateway

Verify Node.js and npm installations:
```
node --version
npm --version
```
Common issues:
- On macOS with Homebrew, ensure Node.js is properly linked:
```
brew doctor
brew link node
```
- For permission errors, consider using sudo during installation.

License

Apache 2.0 License

Support

If you encounter any issues or have questions, file an issue on GitHub.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

mcp-gateway