Remote MCP Server Authless

You can run a remote MCP server that exposes its tools to clients like Cloudflare AI Playground and Claude Desktop. This setup lets you deploy tools remotely and access them through standard MCP clients, enabling you to extend your workflows without hosting everything locally.

How to use

Connect to your remote MCP server from any compatible MCP client to start using your tools. You can try the server from the Cloudflare AI Playground, which acts as a remote MCP client, or connect from local clients such as Claude Desktop via a remote proxy. When you connect from a client, you’ll discover your configured tools as available actions you can invoke in conversations or prompts.

To use the Cloudflare AI Playground: open the playground in your browser, enter your deployed MCP server URL, and begin using your tools directly from the playground interface.

To connect Claude Desktop to your remote MCP server, configure the MCP server URL in Claude’s settings and restart Claude. Then the tools exposed by your MCP server will appear as available options in your workflows.

How to install

Prerequisites: ensure you have Node.js and npm installed on your machine. You’ll also need a Cloudflare account if you plan to deploy via Cloudflare Workers.

Option A: Deploy the MCP server to Cloudflare Workers using the web deployment flow.

1. Open the deployment URL to start the setup flow in your browser.

Option B: Create and run the MCP server locally with a template.

2. Run the following command on your machine to scaffold the server using the provided template.

npm create cloudflare@latest -- my-mcp-server --template=cloudflare/ai/demos/remote-mcp-authless

Additional sections

Customization: To add your own tools to the MCP server, define each tool inside the init() method of src/index.ts using this.server.tool(...). This is the place where you declare the capabilities your server will expose to MCP clients.

Connect to Cloudflare AI Playground: go to the Cloudflare AI Playground, enter your deployed MCP server URL, and you can immediately use your MCP tools from the playground interface.

Connect Claude Desktop to your MCP server: you can connect locally by using the mcp-remote proxy. In Claude Desktop, go to Settings > Developer > Edit Config, then replace the mcpServers section with the following configuration to point to your remote server.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "calculator": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-remote",
        "http://localhost:8787/sse"  // or remote-mcp-server-authless.your-account.workers.dev/sse
      ]
    }
  }
}