Start free

Add the Cognee MCP server to Claude Desktop

Config last verified Nov 10, 2026

The exact config to run Cognee in Claude Desktop — paste it in, restart, and the tools load.

Prerequisites

  • Claude Desktop installed.
  • LLM_API_KEY — API key for the LLM provider Cognee uses to extract the graph and answer queries (OpenAI by default).

Setup

1. Open ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

On Windows the file lives at %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json.

2. Add this configuration

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cognee": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "TRANSPORT_MODE=stdio",
        "-e",
        "LLM_API_KEY",
        "cognee/cognee-mcp:main"
      ],
      "env": {
        "LLM_API_KEY": "<LLM_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop and confirm the Cognee tools load.

Gotchas

Claude Desktop reads MCP servers from an "mcpServers" object, but the config file is stdio-only: it cannot dial a remote URL directly. To reach a remote server you bridge it locally by running "npx mcp-remote <url>" as the command. Native remote Connectors exist on paid plans, but not through this config file, so the bridge is the portable path.

← Back to the Cognee MCP server
MCP Server DirectoryGlen home