Connecting Claude Code

Claude Code reads MCP servers from three scopes: local (the default of claude mcp add, stored for the current project), project (a .mcp.json in the repository) and user (all your projects). mcprack generates a dedicated format for it, claude-code, that contains no secret.

The generated file

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zabbix": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcprack.example.com/proxy/mcp/8",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer ${MCPRACK_TOKEN}" }
    }
  }
}

The URL is the plain relay route; the credential is read by Claude Code from the MCPRACK_TOKEN environment variable (${VAR} is expanded in url and headers). So the file can be committed as .mcp.json. The variable has our own name on purpose: Claude Code reads credential-looking variables such as ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or NPM_TOKEN as empty inside the headers of a remote server.

Step by step

1. Create a token with the scope proxy:access (user menu → API tokens, or POST /api/v1/tokens). It expires after 90 days unless you choose otherwise.

2. Export it where Claude Code starts — a shell profile, direnv, a secret manager; not the repository:

   export MCPRACK_TOKEN=mcr_...
   

3. Add the servers, either by saving the download as .mcp.json (project scope; Claude Code asks each person to approve a project server once), or with the commands from the View & Copy page:

   claude mcp add --transport http --scope user zabbix \
       https://mcprack.example.com/proxy/mcp/8 \
       --header "Authorization: Bearer $MCPRACK_TOKEN"
   

4. In Claude Code run /mcp to see the status of each server.

With OAuth enabled

When OAUTH_ENABLED=true the generated file has no headers: Claude Code runs the sign-in itself (/mcp → authenticate, or claude mcp login). Ask for the header anyway with ?auth=token. See Enabling MCP OAuth.

Verify before users try it

sudo mcprack user config verify alice claude-code

See Verifying a configuration.

If a server shows failed

MCPRACK_TOKEN=mcr_... mcprack-mcp-probe --bearer --tools \
    https://mcprack.example.com/proxy/mcp/8

The probe shows at which step the connection breaks. Common causes are in Troubleshooting.