claude.ai remote MCP setup

claude.ai connects to MCP servers over the network. Start with local install, then configure remote access:

1. Install a tunnel provider: Neotoma's --tunnel flag needs either ngrok or Cloudflare Tunnel (cloudflared) installed on your machine. Install one:
   Code snippet

   Copy the exact snippet shown below.

   # ngrok (via Homebrew)
   brew install ngrok
   ngrok config add-authtoken <YOUR_NGROK_TOKEN>
   
   # or Cloudflare Tunnel
   brew install cloudflared

   ngrok requires a free account and auth token from dashboard.ngrok.com. You can set the token as an environment variable instead of running ngrok config:

   Code snippet

   Copy the exact snippet shown below.

   # In your shell profile or .env
   export NGROK_AUTHTOKEN=<YOUR_NGROK_TOKEN>

   Cloudflare Tunnel works without an account for quick tunnels. If both providers are installed, Neotoma auto-detects which to use; pass --tunnel-provider ngrok or --tunnel-provider cloudflare to choose explicitly.

2. Start the API server with a tunnel: the --tunnel flag auto-provisions a public HTTPS URL via ngrok or Cloudflare (whichever is installed)
   Code snippet

   Copy the exact snippet shown below.

   neotoma api start --env prod --tunnel

   The tunnel URL is printed to the console and written to /tmp/ngrok-mcp-url.txt. You can also use a reverse proxy or your own domain instead of --tunnel.

3. Connect in claude.ai: go to Settings → MCP Servers and add your tunnel URL (for example https://<tunnel-host>/mcp). Claude authenticates via OAuth; the Neotoma API supports the MCP OAuth authorization flow.