Connect Claude Desktop to Earkeep

Earkeep's server listens on 127.0.0.1 and nothing else. That loopback binding is the security model, and it is also the reason Claude Desktop cannot see it: an address on your own machine means nothing to a service reaching in from outside it.

The bridge is a small program that runs on your computer, is launched by Claude Desktop itself, and passes messages between the two. It speaks to Claude Desktop over its standard input and output, and to Earkeep over loopback, so the server never has to be exposed to anything.

It needs Node installed, because that is what runs the bridge. If npx --version answers in your terminal, you have it.

Two tools, both read-only. Nothing connected here can create, edit or delete a meeting.

• search_spans finds saved meetings by a case-insensitive match on their title or notes, or lists all of them when you don't give it a query. Newest first, twenty at a time.
• read_span takes one meeting's id and returns that meeting plus the transcript lines it covers.

Note the limit before you write a prompt: search matches titles and notes, not the words inside transcripts.

Open Claude Desktop's configuration file:

open -e ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Add the earkeep entry. If the file is empty, the whole of it is this:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "earkeep": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote@latest", "http://127.0.0.1:8730/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

If you already have other servers in there, add earkeep beside them inside the existing mcpServers object rather than adding a second one.

Then restart Claude Desktop. It reads this file at startup, so the entry does nothing until it does.

If you changed the port. The address above is the default. Earkeep shows its real one: press MCP at the bottom of the left rail, and the Connect apps panel gives you this same block with the right port already in it, ready to copy.

With Earkeep running and Claude Desktop restarted, look for Earkeep among the available tools in a new conversation, then ask for something only it can answer:

"Use the earkeep tools to list my most recent meetings, then read the latest one and summarise what was decided."

Real titles from your own week mean the bridge is up.

Earkeep doesn't appear at all. Three things in order: the app has to be running, the file has to be valid JSON, and Claude Desktop has to have been restarted since you saved it. A trailing comma is the usual culprit, and it fails silently.

"Command not found", or the server fails to start. Node is missing. Install it, confirm with npx --version, and restart Claude Desktop.

It starts but cannot connect. Check the port against Settings → General in Earkeep. If it was changed there, the bridge is pointing at the wrong door. A change of port takes effect when Earkeep restarts.

It connects but finds nothing. The server searches saved meetings, so a day that was captured but never had a span kept from it has nothing to find.

It worked yesterday and not today. Earkeep is probably closed. The server is part of the app, not a background service that outlives it.

• Connect Claude Code: the command-line sibling, which connects directly and needs no bridge.
• Agents and MCP: why both exist and what each is for.
• All Earkeep how-tos.