Getting Started with Claude Desktop

Set up MCP Server to connect Claude Desktop with OAuth or PAT-based authentication for AI-powered access to your data.

Getting Started with Claude Desktop

Configure Collate’s MCP Server to interact with Anthropic’s AI assistant platform.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

1. Collate v1.8.0+ running
2. MCP Application installed in Collate
   • Navigate to <YOUR-Collate-SERVER>/marketplace/apps/McpApplication
   • Install McpApplication if not already installed
3. Claude Desktop installed

Connect with OAuth 2.0 (Recommended)

OAuth lets you authenticate using your existing Collate login, with no tokens to manage.

Step 1: Open Settings

Open Claude Desktop and navigate to Settings.

Step 2: Add a Custom Connector

Go to Connectors and click Add custom connector.

Step 3: Configure the Server

• Name: Enter a name for your connector (e.g., Collate)
• Remote MCP server URL: Enter your Collate MCP Server URL:

https://<YOUR-Collate-SERVER>/mcp

For example: https://your-collate-instance.com/mcp

Click Add to save.

Step 4: Authenticate

Claude Desktop will open a browser window prompting you to sign in with your Collate credentials. Follow the on-screen instructions based on your configured authentication method:

• SSO (Google, Azure, Okta, etc.): You will be redirected to your SSO provider’s login page
• Basic Auth: Enter your Collate username and password

Once authenticated, Claude Desktop connects to your Collate MCP Server automatically. You will see the server listed with all available MCP tools.

Connect with Personal Access Token (PAT)

If you prefer token-based authentication or OAuth is not available in your environment, you can use a Personal Access Token with the mcp-remote proxy.

Prerequisites for PAT Method

In addition to the general prerequisites above, you will need:

• nvm and npx/node version 22
• Collate Personal Access Token

Configure Claude Desktop

Navigate to Claude Desktop’s Settings, then select Developer and Edit Config. Paste the following into claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Collate": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "<YOUR-Collate-SERVER>/mcp",
        "--auth-server-url=<YOUR-Collate-SERVER>/mcp",
        "--client-id=Collate",
        "--verbose",
        "--clean",
        "--header",
        "Authorization:${AUTH_HEADER}"
      ],
      "env": {
        "AUTH_HEADER": "Bearer <YOUR-Collate-PAT>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace <YOUR-Collate-SERVER> with your Collate instance URL and <YOUR-Collate-PAT> with your Personal Access Token.

Restart Claude Desktop. You should see your Collate service running.

Prompt to Read from Collate

This part of the guide assumes that you have assets in Collate that Claude can read. You can add data sources into Collate here.

Paste the following prompt into Claude to have it read from Collate:

Imagine you're a data analyst tasked with building a customer retention dashboard.
Can you help me identify which tables or datasets in the Collate database might
contain relevant information?

Claude will ask if it can use the external integration Collate, select Allow always. You may have to do this multiple times, once for each tool. Claude is now reading from Collate via its MCP Server!

For more sample use cases with MCP please check out our blog!

Additional Resources

• Collate MCP Documentation
• OAuth 2.0 Authentication
• MCP Tools Reference

Reach out on Slack!

With MCP, we are finding new ways to use Collate all the time! Now that you have Claude and Collate configured to work together, think you’ve got a great new use case? Show us what you’ve got in Slack!