mcp-gateway

The MCP Gateway serves as a protocol translator between Claude Desktop, which only speaks the stdio-based MCP protocol, and HTTP/SSE-based MCP servers. It runs as a Node.js script and forwards stdio requests from Claude Desktop to a configured HTTP/SSE MCP server, then converts the SSE responses back into the stdio format Claude Desktop expects. This enables Claude Desktop to communicate with a wide range of MCP services that expose HTTP/SSE transports without modifying Claude Desktop itself.

To use it, first install the gateway globally, then configure Claude Desktop to launch the gateway as its MCP server. You can optionally set MCP_SERVER_URL to point to a specific MCP Hub or gateway target. When Claude Desktop sends MCP requests via stdio, the gateway translates them into HTTP requests to the configured MCP server, streams SSE responses back, and translates them into stdio messages for Claude Desktop to consume.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js and npm installed on your machine
• Access to install global npm packages

Installation steps:

1. Install the gateway globally npm install -g @mcphub/gateway

2. Locate the global installation path for the gateway script (example path shown in docs) npm root -g The gateway script will typically be at: <npm_global_root>/@mcphub/gateway/dist/src/mcphub-gateway.js

3. Configure Claude Desktop to use the gateway (see Configuration section in README)

   • Set the Claude Desktop config to run node <gateway-script-path>

4. (Optional) Set MCP_SERVER_URL to point to your target MCP server export MCP_SERVER_URL=https://your-mcp-server.com/api/mcp

Tips and caveats:

• The MCP_SERVER_URL environment variable is optional; if omitted, the gateway defaults to the MCP Hub at https://server.mcphub.ai/api/mcp.
• Ensure the node path in the Claude Desktop configuration points to the exact location of mcphub-gateway.js in your global npm installation.
• If you update the gateway package, you may need to restart Claude Desktop to pick up changes.
• On restrictive systems, you may need to grant appropriate permissions to the global npm modules directory so Claude Desktop can execute the gateway script.
• If you encounter path resolution issues, use the absolute path to the gateway.js file in the Claude Desktop config.