Before you configure a server
Get the server’s setup instructions, including its transport, endpoint or launch command, and authentication requirements. Use the exact MCP endpoint rather than the service’s normal website URL. The configuration belongs to the connected host device. For a Stdio server, its executable and dependencies must be available on that host. For HTTP, the host must be able to reach the endpoint.localhost in an endpoint refers to that host, which may differ from the computer where you are viewing Kisuke.
Add a shared server on desktop
Open Settings → MCPs → Add server. The form is titled New MCP Server.- Enter a distinctive Server Name using letters, numbers, dashes, or underscores. Avoid reusing an existing name unless you intend to update that configuration.
- Choose Stdio or HTTP and fill in the corresponding fields below.
- Leave Scope set to Global for a shared user configuration on the connected host.
- Choose Add. Check the resulting list for the server and any error.
- Open its details and use Check connection when available.
Stdio: launch a process
For example, if the server’s documented command is
node /absolute/path/to/server.mjs, enter node as Command and the absolute script path as one line in Arguments. Replace that example path with the installed server’s real path on the host.
Checking a Stdio connection launches that configured process. It does not install missing dependencies for you.
HTTP: connect to an endpoint
Enter the server’s URL, then select its Authentication method:
When a shared server shows Needs auth, use Auth on its row or Authenticate in its details to begin sign-in. Follow the browser flow, return to Kisuke, and check the connection again.
Use Kisuke Desktop connected to the intended host for MCP OAuth. Mobile directs you to Desktop; a web view without a supported callback adapter cannot complete this flow. A server managed by Codex or a Claude Code session has its own authentication owner, shown in the row.
Configure a project with a file
For a project-specific configuration, place.mcp.json in the project’s root folder on its host device. This example shows the file structure; replace the URL with your server’s real MCP endpoint:
command, args, and optionally env instead of url and type. args is a JSON array, with each argument as a separate string.
The desktop Add server form currently shows a Project option but does not supply the required project path. It can report Project path required for project scope. Use the project file above for this setup.
~/.claude.json on the connected host. Project .mcp.json files are another configuration source. A project entry stored in the host’s ~/.claude.json can override a same-named entry in the project file, so inspect both sources if your edits appear not to take effect.
Environment references such as ${MY_MCP_TOKEN} in shared/project configuration values are expanded from the daemon’s environment on that host. A variable set only in an unrelated terminal may not be available there. Keep actual credentials out of a project file you commit or share.
Understand Check connection
Open the server row or its details button and choose Check connection. Kisuke initializes a separate MCP client, lists tools when the server advertises them, and closes the check connection. It does not invoke a tool or send a model prompt.
A passed check describes that configuration at the time of the check. It is not proof that a running conversation has loaded the same server, credentials, or tools. Connected can also reflect saved authentication or a harness’s reported runtime state; read the row’s origin and details to understand which one it represents.
When a check returns tools, their names appear in Tools in the details view. Tool discovery does not exercise those tools.
Distinguish shared, native, and managed entries
The list combines several sources. Use All, Shared & Claude Code, and Codex filters where available, and read the scope or origin below the name.- Shared user configuration and project entries describe configurations Kisuke can check. They can be used by supporting harnesses, but loading and authentication differ by harness.
- Codex native configuration is managed in Codex on the connected host. Kisuke can check supported configurations, but the check does not use Codex-managed OAuth or keychain sign-in.
- Codex-managed plugin entries show the plugin’s qualified identity and configured enablement. Enabled in Codex is not a connection-check result or proof that a particular conversation has loaded the plugin.
- Codex app internal transport entries belong to the owning app. They are not ordinary server toggles and have no connection-check action here.
- Runtime entries with a session in their origin belong to that harness session. Manage them in that session rather than treating a same-named saved configuration as the same connection.
Use the connection in Zen
Choose the intended harness and model, then ask for a specific task that uses the server. Check the actual tool calls and results in the conversation. For example, if your configured server offers a search tool:MCP connected/total indicator. When the active conversation reports server information, hover over the indicator to see the reported status for each server. The indicator may be absent when the conversation has not supplied that information.
Settings changes do not establish that an already-running harness has reloaded. If a server is missing from a conversation, check its harness, scope, authentication, and native configuration before relying on it. In particular, Codex can retain its own same-named native server instead of Kisuke’s shared entry; shared HTTP projection also requires a usable token in the current implementation.