To set up the MCP server, you'll need Claude Desktop, a dedicated app that runs Claude models locally on your computer. You'll also need Node.js installed to use npx for downloading MCP servers.

Once everything is set up, open Claude Desktop, go to the Settings menu, and open the Developer tab. Click Edit Config to access the configuration file. This is where you'll add MCP servers using configurations similar to the example below.

Now you can visit github page and choose one of the MCP servers of your liking and needs. Or you can copy and paste the configuration below. This MCP server is for filesystem, you can see that it in the args second one in "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem"

Change /path_to_directories to the actual path of the directory you want Claude to work in — for example, /Users/yourname/Desktop. You can add multiple directories by listing each one separately in the configuration file, as shown in the args.json file. These are the authorized locations where Claude will be able to access and interact with your files.