Use Arcade with Claude Desktop

Prerequisites

1. Create an Arcade account
2. Get an Arcade API key
3. Create an Arcade MCP Gateway and select the tools you want to use

Set up Claude Desktop

1. Download and open Claude Desktop 
2. Claude Menu —> “Settings” —> “Developer” —> “Edit Config”
3. Follow the guide here 
4. Open the configuration file and replace the file contents with this:
   • Give your MCP server a name, like mcp-arcade
   • Use the the URL of your MCP Gateway.
   • Add the API key as the bearer token within the Authorization header, and the email address that you used to sign up for the Arcade account as the Arcade-User-ID header

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "arcade-mcp": {
      "url": "https://api.arcade.dev/mcp/<YOUR-GATEWAY-SLUG>",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer {arcade_api_key}",
        "Arcade-User-ID": "{arcade_user_id}"
      }
    }
  }
}

5. Restart Claude Desktop. Upon restarting, you should have access to the Arcade tools you installed.