Claude Desktop¶

Claude Desktop is the visual desktop app for Claude (macOS and Windows). Once the Kuali Connector is wired in, every conversation has access to your Kuali instance as a set of tools Claude can call.

Set it up¶

With a profile already configured (see first connection):

kuali mcp setup --profile myschool

That reads your saved URL and keychain-stored API key, finds the Claude Desktop config file for your operating system, and merges in a kuali MCP server entry. Existing servers in the config are preserved.

Then fully quit Claude Desktop and reopen it. On macOS, "quit" means Cmd+Q — closing the window isn't enough.

Verify¶

kuali mcp verify

This checks the config file path, the registered kuali server entry, the binary path and executable bit, the macOS quarantine flag, whether the API key resolves for your profile, and whether the binary can actually run (kuali version).

Inside Claude, a slider icon in the composer shows that tools are available. Click it to see the list of kuali_* tools.

Ask it something¶

Try any of these to confirm the tools are reachable:

"Use the Kuali tools to list the first five apps."

"What's the workflow status of document <paste-a-doc-id>?"

"Which products does this Kuali instance have configured?"

The first time Claude uses a tool in a conversation, it may ask you to approve the call. You can approve per-call or allow all calls from the Connector for that session.

Multiple profiles in Claude Desktop¶

Claude Desktop's config has one kuali entry at a time. If you work across sandbox and production, two patterns work:

A. Rerun `mcp setup` when you switch¶

kuali mcp setup --profile sandbox
# restart Claude Desktop

B. Register each profile as its own MCP server¶

Edit the Claude Desktop config directly to add multiple entries:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kuali-sandbox": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/kuali",
      "args": ["mcp", "--profile", "sandbox"]
    },
    "kuali-prod": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/kuali",
      "args": ["mcp", "--profile", "prod"]
    }
  }
}

Now each profile shows up as its own tool namespace. You can tell Claude "use the kuali-sandbox tools" or "use the kuali-prod tools" to scope the conversation.

Config file location:

OS	Path
macOS	`~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`
Windows	`%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json`

Keep production safe¶

For anything you're not ready to let the assistant change, set up the profile in read-only mode:

kuali mcp setup --profile prod --tools read-only

Only read tools (list, get, status, export, summary) are registered. Write tools (create, update, submit, approve, delete) are hidden from Claude entirely. Full details: Read-only mode.

Troubleshooting¶

Symptom	Fix
Claude says the server failed to start	Run `kuali mcp verify` — it diagnoses binary path, permissions, and the macOS quarantine flag.
"command not found" in Claude's error log	The absolute path in the config doesn't resolve. Rerun `kuali mcp setup` so the path is written fresh.
Tools are missing after install	Make sure you fully quit Claude Desktop (Cmd+Q on Mac) before relaunching.
macOS blocks the binary when Claude starts it	`xattr -d com.apple.quarantine $(which kuali)`

More help: Troubleshooting.