Installing an MCP Client¶

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is supported by a growing list of AI assistants. MESA is tested against the following clients.

Supported clients¶

Client	Platform	Transport(s)	Install
Claude Desktop	macOS, Windows, Linux	stdio · SSE	claude.ai/download
Claude Code	CLI, all platforms	stdio · SSE	`npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code`
Claude.ai (web)	Browser	SSE	Built-in
Cursor	macOS, Windows, Linux	stdio · SSE	cursor.com
Continue	VS Code · JetBrains	stdio	Extension marketplace
Cline	VS Code	stdio	Extension marketplace
Windsurf	macOS, Windows, Linux	stdio	codeium.com/windsurf
Codex CLI	CLI	stdio	OpenAI release

General pattern¶

Every MCP client config file expects a map of server entries:

stdioSSE / Streamable-HTTPDocker (stdio)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mesa": {
      "command": "mesa-mcp",
      "args": ["--config", "/path/to/config.yaml"]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mesa": {
      "url": "https://mesa-mcp.cis240692.projects.jetstream-cloud.org/sse",
      "transport": "sse"
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "irods": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "cyverse/irods-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Config file locations¶

Client	Path
Claude Desktop (macOS)	`~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`
Claude Desktop (Windows)	`%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json`
Claude Desktop (Linux)	`~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`
Claude Code	`~/.claude/settings.json` or per-project `.claude/settings.json`
Cursor	`~/.cursor/mcp.json`
Continue	`~/.continue/config.json`

Composing multiple servers¶

You can register several MCP servers at once. The agent will pick the right tool for each step, so giving it mesa-mcp for discovery plus formation-mcp for analysis launches is a common pattern.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mesa":       { "url": "https://mesa-mcp.cis240692.projects.jetstream-cloud.org/sse", "transport": "sse" },
    "formation":  { "command": "formation-mcp-bin" },
    "terrain":    { "command": "terrain-mcp" }
  }
}

Troubleshooting¶

See the Troubleshooting page for the most common issues (token expiry, stdio quoting, port conflicts).