Claude Desktop MCP tricks you're sleeping on

Prereq

• Claude Desktop 1.5+
• Node.js 20+ (for npx)
• GitHub personal access token (for the github server)

Steps

01. Open the config

# macOS
code "~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json"
# Linux
code ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
# Windows
code "$env:APPDATA\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json"

02. Add the filesystem server

{
"mcpServers": {
  "filesystem": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": [
      "-y",
      "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
      "/Users/you/projects",
      "/Users/you/notes"
    ]
  }
}
}

Only the listed paths are reachable. Whitelist-by-design.

03. Add the github server

"github": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"],
"env": { "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "ghp_..." }
}

Now Claude can list issues, read PR diffs, comment on reviews.

04. Add fetch (web browsing)

"fetch": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["mcp-server-fetch"]
}

Claude can now pull a URL into context. No more copy-paste dance.

05. Restart and verify

Quit Claude Desktop fully (right-click the dock icon → Quit). Relaunch. You should see three tool icons in the input bar.

Ask: “List the open PRs in owner/repo, fetch the README from the top one, and summarize the changes.”

Next

• Build a custom MCP server
• Shared team MCP over SSE