Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop gets the three DebugAI tools: lookup_error, debug_error and report_outcome. You need Node.js 18.14.1 or later. node -v prints your version.

npx -y @debugai/mcp setup

npx -y @debugai/mcp login
npx -y @debugai/mcp install --client=claude-desktop

✓ Claude Desktop — debugai configured

Use the debugai lookup_error tool on this error: TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'name')

Tell it which project you meanCopy Anchor Link

An agent in a terminal, like Claude Code, usually runs inside your repository, and DebugAI takes the project from that folder. Claude Desktop is an app with no project folder of its own, so the server may not know which repository you mean. It reads files only inside a project, and it never treats your home folder, a folder above it or the filesystem root as one. When it has no project, the footer of a debug_error answer says so:

No local files read: there is no usable project root (none named, or only your home directory, a folder above it or the filesystem root, which are never one). Pass projectRoot to name the project.

Name the folder in your message, for example "the project is in /Users/you/shop", and Claude can pass it to the tools as projectRoot. An absolute path to a file inside the repository works too: the server takes the repository that file is in. With a project named, DebugAI reads the source files the stack trace names, and the error is filed under that project's memory.

The config it writesCopy Anchor Link

setup adds one entry to mcpServers in claude_desktop_config.json, in Claude's folder under your system's app data:

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "debugai": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@debugai/mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

• Your key is never written into this file. It lives in ~/.debugai/config.json with 0600 permissions, and every MCP client on the machine reads it from there.
• Before changing the file, install saves a copy beside it, named claude_desktop_config.json.debugai-backup-<timestamp>. Every other setting in the file is kept.
• If the file has comments, the rewrite drops them, and install warns you when it does. The backup keeps them.
• npx -y @debugai/mcp uninstall takes the entry out of every client config again.

setup adds Claude Desktop only when it finds Claude's folder under your app data. If its output does not list Claude Desktop, run npx -y @debugai/mcp install --client=claude-desktop, which writes the file either way.

NextCopy Anchor Link

• Work with your agent: the lookup, debug and report loop, and how to point an answer at the right project.
• MCP server troubleshooting: doctor output, sign-in from inside a chat, and the errors an agent can get back.