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Connecting to the MCP Server

Prerequisites​

  1. An API token generated from the Research App (research.openktree.com) under Profile > API Tokens
  2. An MCP-compatible client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or another MCP client)

Claude Desktop​

Add the following to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "knowledge-tree": {
      "url": "https://mcp.openktree.com/sse",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace YOUR_API_TOKEN with the token from your profile page.

Claude Code​

Add to your Claude Code settings or project .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "knowledge-tree": {
      "url": "https://mcp.openktree.com/sse",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

Local development​

If you're running the Knowledge Tree stack locally, the MCP server runs on port 8001:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "knowledge-tree-local": {
      "url": "http://localhost:8001/sse",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_LOCAL_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

You can bypass authentication in development by setting SKIP_AUTH=true in the MCP server's environment.

Other MCP clients​

Any client that supports the MCP SSE transport can connect. The server URL is:

https://mcp.openktree.com/sse

Pass the API token as a Bearer token in the Authorization header.

Verifying the connection​

Once connected, try searching for a topic:

"Use the Knowledge Tree to search for 'quantum computing'"

Your AI client should call search_graph and return a list of matching nodes from the graph.