How to Connect Brinn to Claude Desktop via MCP (5-Minute Setup)

If you use Claude Desktop regularly, you have probably hit the same wall: Claude is exceptionally good at reasoning, but it only knows what you tell it in the current conversation. The moment you close the window, the context is gone.

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) changes that. And Brinn's official MCP connector is one of the fastest ways to give Claude a permanent, structured memory — your own knowledge graph.

This guide walks you through the complete setup in under five minutes.

What You Are Actually Setting Up

When you connect Brinn to Claude Desktop via MCP, Claude gains read-only access to your Brinn vault. It can retrieve your notes, entities, tags, and graph connections on demand — not proactively. Nothing is sent to Anthropic or Brinn unless you ask Claude a question that requires it.

The result: you can ask Claude things like "What did I decide about the project structure last month?" and get an answer grounded in your actual notes, not Claude's training data.

What You Need

A Brinn account (free tier works — sign up at brinn.app)
Claude Desktop 0.7 or later (download from claude.ai)
macOS or Windows (Linux support is in progress)

Step 1 — Generate Your Brinn API Key

Log in to your Brinn account and navigate to Settings → Integrations. Under the MCP section, click Generate API key. Copy the key immediately — you will not see it again once you close the modal.

Your API key is a secret. Treat it like a password. Do not commit it to version control or share it publicly.

Step 2 — Find Your Claude Desktop Config File

Claude Desktop reads connector configuration from a JSON file on your local machine.

On macOS:

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

On Windows:

%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

If the file does not exist, create it. If it already exists, you will be adding an entry to it.

Step 3 — Add the Brinn Connector Entry

Open the config file and add a brinn entry inside the mcpServers object. Replace YOUR_API_KEY with the key you copied in Step 1.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brinn": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@brinn/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "BRINN_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

If you already have other MCP connectors in the file, add the brinn entry alongside them inside the same mcpServers object.

Step 4 — Restart Claude Desktop

Quit Claude Desktop completely (not just close the window — quit from the menu bar or taskbar). Reopen it. The Brinn connector icon will appear in the toolbar, indicating your knowledge graph is now accessible.

Step 5 — Test the Connection

Ask Claude a question that references something in your Brinn vault:

"What notes do I have about [topic]?"
"Summarise everything I've written about [person or project]."
"What decisions did I make in the last 30 days?"

If Claude responds with content from your vault, the connection is working.

Troubleshooting

The connector icon does not appear: Ensure you fully quit and restarted Claude Desktop. Verify your JSON is valid (paste it into jsonlint.com). Check that the config file is saved at the correct path for your OS.

Claude cannot access your data: Your API key may have been invalidated. Go to Brinn Settings → Integrations and generate a new key, then update the config file.

The connector connects but returns nothing: Your Brinn vault needs at least one note. Save a few entries and try again.

Revoking Access

To disconnect Claude at any time, go to Brinn Settings → Integrations and delete or regenerate your API key. Revocation is immediate.

What Comes Next

Once Claude has access to your knowledge graph, the most useful workflows are:

Weekly reviews — ask Claude to summarise what you focused on and surface any recurring themes
Decision support — ask Claude to recall your past reasoning before making a similar decision
Research synthesis — ask Claude to connect notes across different time periods or topics

The more you capture in Brinn, the more useful the MCP connection becomes. See the full setup documentation →