Jentic MCP + Claude Desktop

Goal — In a few minutes, you’ll enable Jentic MCP tools in Claude Desktop, allowing you to find, inspect, and run external APIs directly in your coding workflow.

What you’ll get

With Jentic MCP configured in Claude Desktop, you'll gain access to powerful tools:

Tool available in Claude Desktop	What it does
/search_apis	Type what you need (e.g., "Send Discord Message", "Find New York Times Articles") and MCP lists matching APIs.
/load_execution_info	Click any result to view its full spec (URL, parameters, auth requirements).
/execute	Fill-in the parameters and run the API or workflow – response appears in the chat.

Before you start

Ensure you have the following:

You need	Why	Quick install
Python ≥ v0.10	Required for uv/uvx and Jentic CLI.	python.org
Claude Desktop ≥ v0.10	The UI interface for this MCP integration	Claude Desktop
uv / uvx runtime	Launcher that runs the Jentic MCP server.	Install with pip: `pip install uv` (any OS) or with Homebrew (macOS): `brew install uv` If you have trouble with `uvx`, see Troubleshooting: Making Claude Desktop See `uvx` below.

1. Get Your API Key (if you don't have one already)

To use the Jentic SDK or MCP Plugin, you must obtain your API key. The easiest way is using the Jentic CLI. You can optionally include an email address for higher rate limits and for early access to new features.

pip install jentic
jentic register --email '<your_email>'

This will print your API key and an export command to set it in your environment:

export JENTIC_UUID=<your-api-key>

Alternatively, you can use curl to register and obtain your API key:

curl -X POST https://api.jentic.com/api/v1/auth/register \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"email": "<your_email>"}'

2. Configure Claude Desktop to use MCP

Quit Claude Desktop if it’s open.
Open or create your configuration file:

macOS
• In Finder press ⇧⌘G (Go → Go to Folder) and paste ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/ then click Go.
• If you don’t see claude_desktop_config.json, right‑click inside the folder ➜ New Document ➜ name it exactly claude_desktop_config.json (include the .json).
• Double‑click the file to open it in your preferred text editor (e.g., TextEdit, VS Code, Sublime, etc.).

Windows
• Press Windows + R, type %APPDATA%\Claude, press Enter.
• If the file isn’t there, right‑click ➜ New → Text Document ➜ rename to claude_desktop_config.json (be sure it’s not *.txt), then double‑click to open in Notepad.

Linux
• In your file manager press Ctrl + L, type ~/.config/Claude, press Enter.
• Create the file if missing (right‑click ➜ New Document) and open it in Gedit/Kate/etc.

Paste the block below into the file (replace the file’s content if it’s empty):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jentic": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "git+https://github.com/jentic/jentic-tools.git@main#subdirectory=mcp",
        "mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "JENTIC_UUID": "<your-api-key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Save the file and re‑launch Claude Desktop.

3. (Optional) Add API keys and Environment Variables

Some APIs returned by /search_apis → /load_execution_info will list required tokens or base‑URLs. Add them once and Claude passes them automatically.

Steps

Open the same claude_desktop_config.json file.
Insert or update the env block inside the jentic server.
Save the file and restart Claude Desktop.

Full example after adding keys

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jentic": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "git+https://github.com/jentic/jentic-tools.git@main#subdirectory=mcp",
        "mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "JENTIC_UUID": "<your-api-key>", 
        "DISCORD_BOTTOKEN": "<your-discord-bot-token>",
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "<your-openai-api-key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Security tip: The config file is plain‑text—store it somewhere only you can access (FileVault, BitLocker, etc.).

4. If something doesn’t work

What you see / Problem	Try this
Jentic MCP buttons not showing in Claude Desktop	Check your JSON configuration file for syntax errors (e.g., missing commas, incorrect brackets). Ensure Claude Desktop was fully restarted after any changes. Check Claude Desktop's logs for MCP-related errors.
“command not found: uvx” (in logs or error)	`uvx` is not in a path Claude Desktop can see. See "Troubleshooting: Making Claude Desktop See `uvx`" below for details.
API calls fail (e.g., 401/403 errors)	The API likely requires authentication. Use `/load_execution_info` to check its requirements, then add necessary API keys/tokens to the `env` block in the config file (see Step 5). Restart Claude Desktop.
Other errors from Jentic MCP tools	Check Claude Desktop's logs for more details. For advanced debugging, you can run the Jentic MCP server manually and inspect its direct output/logs.

Troubleshooting: Making Claude Desktop See `uvx`

Claude Desktop is a GUI app; it doesn’t read your shell profile, so binaries added to PATH in .zshrc/.bashrc may be invisible. Choose one of these options:

Option A – Homebrew / System package (macOS & Linux)

Homebrew (macOS) or your distro’s package manager / a sudo pip install uv drops uvx somewhere Claude already looks:
- /usr/local/bin on Intel Macs & most Linux distros
- /opt/homebrew/bin on Apple Silicon

If which uvx returns a path, you’re good – skip this section.

Option B – pip / pipx / pyenv (user-local installs)

If uvx lives in a user-local directory, expose it via a symlink (macOS/Linux) or by adding the folder to PATH (Windows).

macOS / Linux – symlink

sudo ln -sf "$(which uvx)" /usr/local/bin/uvx   # use /opt/homebrew/bin on Apple Silicon
sudo ln -sf "$(which uv)"  /usr/local/bin/uv

Windows – PATH
1. Locate the folder containing uvx.exe (e.g. %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python311\Scripts).
2. Add that folder to Path in Environment Variables….
3. Restart Claude Desktop (and any open terminals).

Option C – Hard-code the full path

Alternatively, you can skip creating symlinks and directly specify the full path to the binary in the configuration file.

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Jentic MCP + Claude Desktop