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Connecting MCP Clients

Once you have built your MCP Server, it acts as a standalone web service waiting for connections. To allow an LLM client (like the Claude Desktop app or the Gemini CLI) to talk to it, you need two things:
  1. A secure access token.
  2. A configuration snippet tailored to that client.

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Generating Access Tokens

HasMCP uses time-limited, scoped access tokens to secure your servers. This ensures that even if a configuration file is leaked, the exposure is temporary.
  1. Navigate to the MCP Servers tab and click on your target server (e.g., stripe-billing-agent).
  2. Locate the Generate Token button in the header.
  3. Set Expiration: Choose a validity period.
    • Short-term (1h - 24h): Recommended for testing or temporary sessions.
    • Long-term (30d - 1y): Recommended for stable, local deployments on your personal machine.
  4. Click Create Token.
⚠️ Copy Once Policy: The full token value is displayed only once immediately after creation. For security reasons, HasMCP does not store the token at all and check the validity of JWT. Always use short-lived time spans for your own security! If you lose it, you must generate a new one.

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Client Configuration

HasMCP automatically generates the correct JSON configuration for the most common MCP clients. You can find these snippets at the bottom of the MCP Server Details page.

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1. Cursor

The Cursor app supports MCP natively via a configuration file. Setup:
  1. Copy the “common format” snippet from the HasMCP UI.
  2. Open or create the configuration file on your computer:
    • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
    • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
  3. Paste the snippet into the mcpServers object.
Example Configuration: 
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "stripeAgent": {
      "url": "http://localhost:8887/mcp/<SERVER_ID>",
      "headers": {
        "x-hasmcp-key": "Bearer <YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

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2. Gemini CLI (Google)

For developers building with Google’s generative AI tools. Setup:
  1. Select the “gemini-cli” tab in the HasMCP UI configuration section.
  2. Copy the JSON snippet. Note that Gemini uses httpUrl instead of url.
Example Configuration: 
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "stripe-agent": {
      "httpUrl": "http://localhost:8887/mcp/<SERVER_ID>",
      "headers": {
        "x-hasmcp-key": "Bearer <YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

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3. Remote MCP (Bridge)

Some MCP clients do not yet support direct HTTP connections (SSE) and only support local process execution (stdio). In this case, you use npx to run a lightweight bridge. Setup:
  1. Select the “using remote-mcp” tab in the HasMCP UI.
  2. This configures the client to run a local Node.js process that forwards traffic to your HasMCP server.
Setup for Cursor Desktop Free:
  1. Copy the “using remote-mcp” snippet from the HasMCP UI.
  2. Open or create the configuration file on your computer:
    • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
    • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
  3. Paste the snippet into the mcpServers object.
Example Configuration: 
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "stripe-agent": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-remote",
        "http://localhost:8887/mcp/<SERVER_ID>",
        "--header",
        "x-hasmcp-key: Bearer <YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN>"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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Troubleshooting Connections

If your client shows a “Connection Failed” or “Server Error” message:
  1. Check Token Validity: Ensure your token hasn’t expired. You can view active tokens in the Server Details page.
  2. Check Environment Variables: Go to the HasMCP UI. If you see a red warning box on the Server Details page saying “Missing Environment Variables”, the server will reject connections until those secrets are added.
  3. Inspect Logs: Use the Server Logs feature in HasMCP to see if the request is reaching the server and what error code is being returned (e.g., 401 Unauthorized vs. 500 Internal Error).