Connect Hive to Claude Desktop

Connect Claude Desktop to Hive with Claude's Custom Connectors flow. Use the managed remote endpoint for normal setup, then verify that Claude can call a live Hive tool in a new chat.

Before you start

1. Claude Desktop installed from claude.ai/download. macOS or Windows.
2. A Hive API key from /dashboard/keys.
3. A Claude plan that supports Custom Connectors. Free is limited to one custom connector; Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise have higher limits. (Source: Anthropic — Custom Connectors using remote MCP.)

Recommended: Custom Connector (managed remote endpoint)

This is the path Anthropic recommends for any remote MCP server. You add the connection through Claude Desktop's UI, not the config file — Claude Desktop's claude_desktop_config.json is stdio-only and does not accept url+headers entries.

1. Open Custom Connectors

In Claude Desktop:

1. Click your account avatar → Settings
2. Click Connectors in the sidebar
3. Hover over Add custom, then click Web

2. Configure Hive

Click Add. Claude Desktop will validate the connection and list the tools Hive exposes.

3. Verify it worked

Start a new chat and ask:

"What is the current price of Bitcoin and Ethereum?"

Claude calls Hive's get_price tool and replies with live numbers. The tool-call indicator should appear in the chat — click it to inspect the request.

Alternative: stdio via the local Node wrapper

If you can't add a Custom Connector (no internet to mcp.hiveintelligence.xyz, corporate proxy that only trusts Node's HTTP client, air-gapped setup), Claude Desktop can spawn Hive as a local subprocess via stdio. This is the path that goes through claude_desktop_config.json.

Requires Node 20 or higher on your PATH.

1. Open the config file

In Claude Desktop: Settings → Developer → Edit Config. This opens claude_desktop_config.json in your default editor.

2. Add this stdio config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hive": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "-p", "hive-intelligence", "hive"],
      "env": {
        "HIVE_API_KEY": "YOUR_HIVE_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

The local wrapper reads HIVE_API_KEY from the subprocess environment and forwards every request to Hive with Authorization: Bearer attached.

3. Restart Claude Desktop

Quit fully (⌘Q on macOS, right-click the dock icon → Quit) and reopen. Claude picks up the new MCP server on launch.

What to ask once connected

Hive exposes a compact root discovery layer and a full 369-tool callable catalog. Claude discovers tools through MCP at runtime; for the full REST catalog, use authenticated GET /api/v1/tools or the public Live Catalog. Try:

• "Check if token 0x6B175474E89094C44Da98b954EedeAC495271d0F is safe to buy — honeypot, owner risks, liquidity depth."
• "Which DeFi pools on Ethereum have a 7-day yield above 10% with at least $10M TVL?"
• "What's the profit and loss of vitalik.eth's wallet this year?"
• "Has any whale moved more than $5M of USDC onchain in the last 24 hours?"
• "Compare BTC perpetual funding rates across Binance, Bybit, and OKX right now."

Troubleshooting

The Custom Connectors menu is missing or greyed out. You're on a Claude plan or version that hasn't enabled custom MCP connectors. Update Claude Desktop (Claude menu → Check for Updates), or upgrade to Pro/Team/Enterprise. As of 2026, Free supports one custom connector.

The connector says "couldn't connect" or "401". Double-check the API key at /dashboard/keys. The key is a long string starting with hive_live_…; enter it exactly, with no extra spaces.

Hive tools don't appear in chat. Open the connector in Settings → Connectors → Hive, click Refresh tools, then start a new chat. Existing chats don't pick up newly added connectors.

Connection error from a corporate network. mcp.hiveintelligence.xyz may be blocked. Test on a home network to isolate. If you must stay behind the firewall, use the stdio alternative above — it routes through Node and can pick up your proxy environment variables.

Command not found: npx (stdio alternative only). Install Node.js 20 or higher from nodejs.org, then restart Claude Desktop.

HIVE_API_KEY is invalid (stdio alternative only). Verify the key at /dashboard/keys. The key value goes inside the JSON string, no extra quotes.

Other clients

• Claude Code — Anthropic's terminal CLI
• Cursor — IDE-native MCP support
• All clients — full list

Next steps

• Agent Resources — what Claude can build with Hive wired in
• Tools Reference — every tool Claude can call
• Data Sources — the upstream providers Hive normalizes