Connect Claude Desktop to the PlantDemand MCP Server

Claude Desktop is Anthropic’s desktop application for macOS and Windows. It supports remote HTTP MCP servers through its claude_desktop_config.json file. This guide walks through connecting Claude Desktop to the PlantDemand MCP server in under five minutes.

Before you start

  • An active PlantDemand account with at least one plant configured
  • A Server-Api-Key generated for your account (see SOP 4.1)
  • Claude Desktop installed and working with at least one MCP server already (or this is your first MCP setup — that is fine too)
  • Verify the curl examples in the quickstart work from your network before configuring the client

Configuration

Add the following configuration to Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "plantdemand": {
      "url": "https://plantdemand.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Server-Api-Key": "${PLANTDEMAND_SERVER_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Step-by-step setup

  1. Open Claude Desktop and go to Settings > Developer. Click Edit Config to open the claude_desktop_config.json file.
  2. Add the PlantDemand entry to the mcpServers section as shown above. If mcpServers already exists with other servers, add "plantdemand" as a sibling key.
  3. Set the PLANTDEMAND_SERVER_API_KEY environment variable to your API key. On macOS, add export PLANTDEMAND_SERVER_API_KEY="your-key" to ~/.zshrc; on Windows, set it in System Environment Variables.
  4. Quit Claude Desktop completely and relaunch it so it picks up the new configuration.
  5. Open a new conversation. Claude should now show “plantdemand” listed under available MCP tools (look for the tool icon in the chat input).

Verifying the connection

After connecting, ask Claude Desktop:

“List the plants I have access to in PlantDemand.”

If the assistant returns a list of plants, the connection is working. Try a follow-up:

“What is on the schedule for plant [your plant ID] tomorrow?”

Troubleshooting

  • PlantDemand does not appear in the tools list: Confirm the JSON is valid (no trailing commas) and that you fully quit Claude Desktop before reopening.
  • Claude says it cannot reach the MCP server: Test the curl examples in the quickstart from the same machine. If those fail, the issue is network or API key, not Claude Desktop.
  • 401 Unauthorized errors: Confirm your environment variable is set in the same shell that launched Claude Desktop. On macOS, you may need to launch Claude from a terminal with open -a "Claude" after setting the variable.

Where to go next