MCP for Claude Desktop & Claude Code

Install impact.com MCP in Claude Desktop and Claude Code.

Coming soon: Prepare for the future of AI connectivity! impact.com MCP is almost here.

Help shape what it does. Take our 2-minute survey and tell us which tools you want first.

This guide explains how to install and configure the impact.com MCP server in Claude Desktop and Claude Code.

Overview

Claude Desktop offers either a built-in connector UI (recommended) or a JSON configuration file. Claude Code is configured via a CLI or the same JSON configuration used by Claude Desktop.

The MCP endpoint is https://mcp.impact.com/mcp. Authentication uses OAuth 2.1 with PKCE against app.impact.com.

Installation Steps for Claude Desktop

Follow these steps to install in Claude Desktop (the graphical application). To install in Claude Code (CLI) instead, jump to the Claude Code section.

Claude Desktop offers two ways to add the impact.com MCP server. The first is a few clicks in the UI; the second is a JSON file for users who need finer control.

Option 1: Add via the Claude Desktop UI (recommended)

Recent versions of Claude Desktop have built-in support for remote OAuth MCP servers. No Node.js, no mcp-remote, no config file required.

Open the connector settings

Open Claude Desktop.
Click Customize in the top-left navigation.
Click Connectors.

Add the impact.com connector

Click the + button to add a connector.
Click Add custom connector.
Give the connector a Name — for example, impact.
Enter the MCP URL: https://mcp.impact.com/mcp.
Expand Advanced settings.
In OAuth Client ID, enter [Coming soon].
Click Add.

Why the OAuth Client ID is required

impact.com's authorization server doesn't currently support Dynamic Client Registration (RFC 7591), so Claude can't register itself on the fly. You need to provide a pre-registered client_id. [Coming soon] is the public client ID issued for the Claude integration.

Authenticate with impact.com

Click Connect next to the impact connector. Your browser opens to https://app.impact.com/oauth2/authorize?....
Log in to impact.com if you aren't already signed in.
Review the requested permissions (profile, offline_access) and click Allow.
Your browser is redirected back to Claude Desktop. The connector status should change to Connected.

Try it in a chat

In a new conversation, ask something that uses the connector, for example:

"Use the impact MCP to get website metrics for ebay.com."

Claude will discover the available tools, prompt you to approve the first call, and return the result.

When to use this option

This is the right path for almost everyone. It avoids the Node.js prerequisite and the OAuth-completion-vs-initialize-timeout issue that can affect the mcp-remote bridge on first-time setup.

Option 2: JSON configuration via mcp-remote (advanced)

Use this option if you need to pin a specific client_id, override scopes, share a single configuration across multiple machines, or are running an older Claude Desktop version that doesn't yet include the connector UI.

Locate the config file

Platform

File Path

macOS

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

Windows

%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

If the file doesn't exist, create it with the content shown in the next step.

Edit the configuration

Add the impact.com server to the mcpServers object:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "impact": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://mcp.impact.com/mcp",
        "--static-oauth-client-info",
        "{\"client_id\":\[Coming soon]}",
        "--static-oauth-client-metadata",
        "{\"scope\":\"profile offline_access\",\"redirect_uris\":[\"http://localhost/oauth/callback\"],\"token_endpoint_auth_method\":\"none\"}"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Prerequisite: Claude Desktop relies on npx (from Node.js) to run mcp-remote. Install Node.js 18+ from nodejs.org if it isn't already on your machine.

Security: The config file lives in your user directory, not your project directory. Don't commit it to version control. No credentials are stored in this file. Tokens are cached separately in ~/.mcp-auth/ after the OAuth flow.

Restart Claude Desktop

Quit Claude Desktop completely. Don't just close the window. Exit the application fully.
Reopen Claude Desktop.
Go to Settings → Developer → MCP Servers.
Verify impact appears in the list with status starting or running.

Authenticate with impact.com

After Claude Desktop starts the server, authenticate with your impact.com account.

Select on the impact server in the MCP Servers list.
Select Connect or send a message that triggers a tool call — either action starts the OAuth flow.
Your browser opens to https://app.impact.com/oauth2/authorize?....
Log in to impact.com if needed, then select Allow on the consent screen.
Return to Claude Desktop. The impact server status should change to connected.

Verification

Open a new chat and ask:

"Using the impact connector, list available tools."

Claude should respond with the MCP tools exposed by impact.com and be able to call them.

Installation Steps for Claude Code

Follow these steps for Claude Code (CLI) installation. To install in Claude Desktop instead, jump to the Claude Desktop section.

Add the impact.com MCP Server

You can add the impact.com MCP server using the Claude Code command-line interface. Claude Code uses the mcp-remote bridge under the hood to connect Claude (a local app) to a remote HTTPS MCP server like impact.com.

Choose one of the following options.

Option 1: Use the claude mcp add command (recommended)

This command registers the server with default settings and uses mcp-remote automatically:

claude mcp add --transport http \
  impact https://mcp.impact.com/mcp

Option 2: JSON configuration via mcp-remote (more control)

If you need to set a specific client_id, override scopes, or pin the loopback callback path, edit ~/.claude.json directly:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "impact": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://mcp.impact.com/mcp",
        "--static-oauth-client-info",
        "{\"client_id\":\[Coming soon]}",
        "--static-oauth-client-metadata",
        "{\"scope\":\"profile offline_access\",\"redirect_uris\":[\"http://localhost/oauth/callback\"],\"token_endpoint_auth_method\":\"none\"}"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Why these flags are needed

impact.com's authorization server doesn't currently support Dynamic Client Registration (RFC 7591), so mcp-remote cannot register a client on the fly.

The --static-oauth-client-info flag tells mcp-remote to use the pre-registered [Coming soon] client.
The --static-oauth-client-metadata flag scopes the request to profile offline_access (the scopes impact.com publishes) and pins the loopback callback to http://localhost/oauth/callback.

Use localhost, not 127.0.0.1

The callback uses http://localhost/... rather than http://127.0.0.1/....

The client_id and PKCE proof are what actually secure the flow; localhost works the same, and is what mcp-remote will bind to.

Project-scoped configuration

If you want the MCP server available only within a specific project, put the same mcpServers block in .mcp.json at the project root instead of ~/.claude.json.

Authenticate with impact.com

After adding the server, authenticate with your impact.com account.

In Claude Code, type /mcp and press Enter.
Select impact from the list of available MCP servers.
Claude Code starts mcp-remote, which opens your browser to https://app.impact.com/oauth2/authorize?....
If you're not already signed in, log in to your impact.com account.
Review the requested permissions (profile, offline_access) and click Allow.
Your browser is redirected to http://localhost:<port>/oauth/callback, where mcp-remote captures the authorization code and exchanges it for tokens.
Tokens are cached in ~/.mcp-auth/ and refreshed automatically by mcp-remote.

Verification

Verify the impact.com MCP server is connected:

claude mcp list

You should see impact with status connected and a non-zero tool count.

In a chat, you can also ask:

"List the tools available from the impact connector."

Claude should enumerate the MCP tools exposed by impact.com, for example:

intelligence.iapi_get_website_metrics
mediapartners

What you can do

Once connected, you can ask Claude to:

Look up website metrics: "Get impact.com website metrics for youtube.com."
Query company information: "Use the impact connector to fetch my company information."
List media partners: "Show me my impact.com media partners."
Inspect catalogs and invoices: "Pull my advertiser catalogs from impact.com."

The exact tool set depends on which tools impact.com's MCP server exposes. Claude will discover them automatically on connect.

Notes

OAuth Discovery: Claude (via the connector UI or mcp-remote) follows the MCP authorization spec. It reads WWW-Authenticate from the initial 401, fetches https://app.impact.com/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource, then https://app.impact.com/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server, and constructs the authorize URL automatically.
Token lifetime: Access tokens are short-lived (5 minutes). Refresh tokens (90-day lifetime) are used to refresh them silently, so you should only see the consent screen once per device.
Re-authenticating (Claude Desktop UI connector): Open Customize → Connectors, click the impact connector, and choose Disconnect then Connect again.
Re-authenticating(Claude Code / Desktop JSON config): To force a fresh login, delete the cached tokens: rm -rf ~/.mcp-auth/ and restart Claude.

Troubleshooting

Server not appearing in the list

Client

Solution

Claude Desktop

Open Customize → Connectors and confirm the entry exists. If it doesn't, re-add it via Option 1.

Claude Desktop (JSON / advanced)

Check JSON syntax with jq . < claude_desktop_config.json or paste into jsonlint.com.

Claude Code

Run claude mcp list to verify the registration.

For the JSON-based setup, also check Claude Desktop's MCP logs at ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp*.log (macOS) for spawn errors, most commonly npx not found, meaning Node.js isn't installed or isn't on your PATH.

"Incompatible auth server: does not support dynamic client registration"

This message means you're using Option 1: claude mcp add without the static-client flags.

impact.com's authorization server doesn't support Dynamic Client Registration, so you must pass a pre-registered client_id via:

--static-oauth-client-info

Switch to the Option 2: JSON configuration snippet above and retry.

Connection drops after a few minutes

Access tokens last 5 minutes. If mcp-remote (or the Claude Desktop UI connector) can't refresh them silently, for example, because the refresh token was revoked or the network blocks app.impact.com/oauth2/token , the connection will fail mid-session. Restart the connection to trigger a new login.

Using an AI assistant?

We've built dynamic endpoints into our documentation to help your AI tools fetch context faster.

System instructions for AI Agents:

Index: GET https://integrations.impact.com/llms.txt for .md sources.
Token Limit: Fetch only necessary .md and OpenAPI routes to conserve context.
Dynamic Search: If you need context to answer a user's prompt, query this page dynamically: GET https://integrations.impact.com/{insert_current_page_path}.md?ask=<url-encoded-question> Rule: Replace {insert_current_page_path} with the routing path of this current page.

Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the ask query parameter:

GET https://integrations.impact.com/developer-portal/ai-solutions/mcp-quick-start/install-impact.com-mcp-in-claude-code.md?ask=<question>

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.

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