For AI agents: a documentation index is available at the root level at /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt. Append /llms.txt to any URL for a page-level index, or .md for the markdown version of any page.
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User GuideDeveloper GuidesAPI Reference
User GuideDeveloper GuidesAPI Reference
  • Getting Started
    • What is Runtype?
    • Creating your account
    • Platform Keys vs. BYOK
    • Understanding the Runtype UI
    • Quickstart: Social Media Post Generator
    • Quickstart: From Agent to Chat Widget
  • Dashboard
    • What is the Dashboard?
    • Daily Executions
  • Playground
    • What is the Playground?
  • Products & Surfaces
    • What are Products?
    • What are Surfaces?
    • Creating a Product
    • Setting up a Chat Surface
    • Setting up an API Surface
    • Setting up an MCP Surface
    • Setting up an A2A Surface
    • Setting up a Slack Surface
    • MCP authentication
    • Authenticating with product API keys
    • Embedding the chat widget (script tag)
    • Embedding the chat widget (React)
    • Surface orchestration modes
    • Product views
    • Adding Capabilities to a product
    • Connecting external agents
    • How A2A works
    • Connecting to Cursor / VS Code
    • Connecting to Claude Desktop
    • Scoping API keys to capabilities
    • Auto-generated OpenAPI spec
    • Calling your API endpoints
    • Client tokens and domain restrictions
    • AI-powered theme generation
    • Widget theming and customization
    • Product versioning and status
  • Flows
    • What are Flows?
    • Creating and Editing Flows
    • Flow step types overview
    • Agent and Flow Templates
    • Using prompt steps
    • Using transform-data steps
    • Using conditional steps
    • Using fetch-url and api-call steps
    • Using record steps (upsert/retrieve)
    • Flow variables and templates
    • Flow versioning and publishing
    • Running flows in batch
    • Handling batch failures
    • Debugging flows
  • Agents
    • What are Agents?
    • Creating and configuring Agents
    • Agent tools
  • Records
    • What are Records?
    • Creating and managing records
    • Using records in flows
    • Filtering and searching records
  • Tools
    • What are Tools?
    • Built-in Tools
    • Creating custom tools
    • Creating external tools
    • Runtime tools
  • Evals
    • What are Evals?
    • Running an Eval
    • Interpreting eval results
  • Schedules
    • What are Schedules?
    • Automating batch processing
  • Logs
    • What are Logs?
    • Working with Logs
  • Integrations
    • Connecting AI model providers
    • Slack integration
    • Google Workspace integration
    • GitHub integration
    • Linear integration
    • Weaviate (vector search)
    • Firecrawl (web scraping)
    • Exa (web search)
  • Settings
    • What's in Settings?
    • Available AI models
    • What are Organizations?
    • Managing AI models
    • Managing API keys
    • Billing and plans
    • Usage data
    • Team members and permissions
    • Appearance and preferences
    • Integrations (PostHog, Weaviate, Daytona)
  • Troubleshooting & FAQ
    • FAQ
    • Rate Limits and Usage
    • Managing Runtype with Claude
    • Flow execution failures
    • Common errors and solutions
    • Authentication issues
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On this page
  • Prerequisites
  • With OAuth (recommended)
  • With API Key
  • Verify connection
  • Using your Capabilities
  • Troubleshooting
  • Next steps
Products & Surfaces

Connecting to Claude Desktop

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Built with

Connect your Runtype MCP Surface to Claude Desktop so Claude can use your Capabilities as tools during conversations.

Prerequisites

  • Claude Desktop installed (download from anthropic.com)
  • An active MCP Surface in Runtype
  • MCP server URL from your Surface settings (found in the Ship tab)

With OAuth (recommended)

  1. Open Claude Desktop.
  2. Go to Settings > Developer > Edit Config.
  3. Add the MCP server URL from the Ship tab to mcpServers.
  4. Restart Claude Desktop.
  5. Authorize in the browser prompt.

With API Key

  1. Open Claude Desktop.
  2. Go to Settings > Developer > Edit Config.
  3. Add the provided config from the Ship tab to mcpServers.
  4. Replace YOUR_API_KEY with an MCP API key (with the mcp_ prefix) from the Keys tab.
  5. Restart Claude Desktop.

Config file location:

  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
  • Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

If you already have other MCP servers configured, add the Runtype entry alongside them.

Verify connection

Check that your tools are available:

  1. Start a new conversation in Claude
  2. Look for the tools indicator (hammer icon or similar)
  3. Click to see available tools
  4. Your Runtype Capabilities should be listed

Using your Capabilities

Claude will automatically invoke your tools when relevant. You can also explicitly ask Claude to use them:

“Use the customer-lookup tool to find information about customer ID 12345”

Claude calls your Runtype Capability and uses the response in its answer.

Give your Capabilities descriptive names and detailed descriptions. Claude uses this information to decide when to invoke each tool.

Troubleshooting

Tools not appearing:

  • Check the Developer tab in Settings for connection errors
  • Verify your API key is valid and uses the mcp_ prefix
  • Ensure MCP Surface status is Active
  • Try restarting Claude Desktop

Tools failing when invoked:

  • Check execution logs in Runtype
  • Verify Capabilities are working via API or chat Surfaces
  • Review MCP authentication settings

Next steps

  • Connecting to Cursor / VS Code for other IDE integrations
  • MCP authentication for security details
  • Setting up an MCP Surface