Claude Desktop connects to the hosted endpoint as a custom connector, and signs you in through your browser. There is nothing to install and no configuration file to edit.
Using Claude Code as well? That one connects to the same endpoint with a single command.

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Before you start

Install Claude Desktop for macOS or Windows, then check for updates from the Claude menu. You also need a SocialRouter account, so sign up at socialrouter.io if you have not yet. There is no API key to create: Claude Desktop’s connectors authenticate by signing in.
1

Open the connectors settings

On macOS, click the Claude menu in the menu bar at the very top of the screen, not the settings inside the Claude window, and choose Settings… On Windows, open the app menu and choose Settings.Go to Connectors in the left sidebar.
2

Add SocialRouter as a custom connector

Click Add custom connector, name it SocialRouter, and paste the URL:
Confirm. The connector appears in the list, not yet connected.
3

Sign in

Click Connect next to it. Claude opens the SocialRouter consent screen in your browser; approve it, and the connector goes green. Claude keeps the token and reconnects on its own from then on.You can disconnect it at any time from the same screen, or from the dashboard, where the connection is listed with its own usage and an optional spending cap.
4

Ask for something

Get me Satya Nadella’s LinkedIn profile.
Claude asks for your approval the first time it uses a tool. If you are not sure what to ask, try “What social media data can you pull with SocialRouter?”

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Running it locally instead

The same server ships as an npm package, which is what you want for offline work, or if your version of Claude Desktop has no custom connectors. It needs Node.js on your machine, and it authenticates with an API key rather than a sign-in.
1

Check you have npx

Open a terminal (Terminal on macOS, PowerShell on Windows) and type npx --version. A number like 10.5.0 means you are fine. If you get “command not found”, install the Node.js LTS build from nodejs.org, which ships npx with it, then restart your computer.
2

Create an API key

In the dashboard. It starts with sr_live_, and the dashboard only shows it once, so paste it somewhere safe before closing the page.
3

Edit the configuration file

In Settings → Developer, click Edit Config. A file called claude_desktop_config.json opens in your text editor. If it did not exist, Claude just created it. Its location, for reference:
  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
If the file is empty (or just contains {}), replace everything with this, putting your own key in place of sr_live_your_key_here:
If the file already lists other servers under mcpServers, add the "socialrouter": { … } entry next to them and leave the rest alone. Save the file.
This file stores your API key in plain text. Anyone who can use your computer can read it. Treat it like a password file, and revoke the key from the dashboard if the machine is shared or lost.
4

Restart Claude Desktop

Quit the app completely with Quit, since closing the window is not enough, then open it again. Claude only loads local servers at launch.

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If something goes wrong

Remove it and add it again. A connector created before SocialRouter offered sign-in can hold a stale discovery result. Check that the URL is exactly https://mcp.socialrouter.io/mcp, with the /mcp path. Authentication covers the flow and how to check it by hand.
The connection may have been disconnected from the dashboard, where every app you approved is listed. Reconnect from Settings → Connectors to approve it again.
  1. Quit and relaunch Claude Desktop completely.
  2. Check the file is valid JSON. A single trailing comma or a missing quote makes Claude ignore the whole file without telling you. Paste it into jsonlint.com if unsure.
  3. Read the logs (below) to see why it failed to start.
  4. Run the server on its own to see the real error:
    It checks in with the API at startup and stops if it cannot reach it, so a failure here almost always means a wrong key or no internet connection.
  • macOS: ~/Library/Logs/Claude
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\logs
mcp.log covers connections in general, and mcp-server-socialrouter.log holds this server’s own output.
Add the expanded value of %APPDATA% to the local server’s env block:
If npx still fails, run npm install -g npm in PowerShell and relaunch Claude Desktop.

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Next steps

Tools reference

What list_services, run, get_extraction and get_account do.

What you can pull

Every platform and service Claude can call.