How to Connect Claude.ai Web to Your Mac

What This Lets You Do

Claude.ai web runs in the cloud, but your email, calendar, and Teams chats live on your Mac. With LMCP plus the Cloud Relay, Claude.ai can call tools that run directly on your Mac — over an encrypted WebSocket tunnel — and the data stays local.

From Claude.ai web you can ask:

• “Summarize my unread emails from this week”
• “What’s on my calendar today?”
• “Search emails about the Q3 budget”
• “Summarize the engineering Teams channel from yesterday”

Claude.ai sends the request to LMCP’s backend, the backend forwards it through the encrypted tunnel to your Mac, your Mac executes the tool locally (Mail.app, Calendar via EventKit, Teams via local cache), and the result returns to Claude.ai — usually in under 2 seconds.

Privacy Story

Cloud Data Forwarding is off by default and opt-in per machine. When off, the connector's tools/list advertises only setup_install (onboarding) — data tools are not listed until you enable forwarding.

When you turn it on, your data still comes from your Mac — nothing is stored in the cloud. The bytes transit through the encrypted tunnel between your Mac and the LMCP backend, but they’re never persisted server-side. Turn it off any time and Claude.ai instantly loses access to data tools.

What You Will Need

• macOS 12 (Monterey) or later — Apple Silicon or Intel
• A Claude.ai account — Pro recommended for custom connectors
• An email address — used to register your tunnel and recover access

Step 1: Install LMCP on Your Mac

1. Download the LMCP installer (.dmg, macOS 12+).
2. Open the .dmg, drag Local MCP to Applications, and open it from Applications.
3. macOS may ask you to confirm opening an app from the internet — click Open.

LMCP starts automatically and puts an icon in your menu bar. Setup takes about 30 seconds.

Step 2: Set Up Cloud Relay

Click the LMCP icon in your menu bar (top-right corner of the screen), then click Settings at the bottom of the popover. In the Settings window, go to the Connect tab and scroll to Cloud AI Clients · Via Cloud Relay.

1. Enter your email address and click Connect. The dot turns green when the encrypted tunnel is established.
2. Toggle Cloud Data Forwarding to ON. This lets cloud agents call your data tools.
3. Step 3 appears automatically: copy the URL and Token — you’ll need them in the next step.

Step 3: Add the Connector in Claude.ai

Open Claude.ai web, then:

1. Click your profile avatar → Settings
2. In the sidebar, click Connectors
3. Scroll to the bottom and click + Add custom connector
4. Fill in:
   • Name: LMCP
   • URL: https://www.local-mcp.com/mcp (or paste from LMCP Settings)
5. Click Add

Claude.ai automatically discovers our OAuth metadata at /.well-known/oauth-authorization-server, registers itself as a public client via Dynamic Client Registration, and opens an authorization popup.

Step 4: Authorize via the Popup

A popup window opens at https://www.local-mcp.com/oauth/authorize with a token paste field. To approve:

1. Go back to LMCP Settings → Connect tab → Step 3
2. Click the Copy button next to Token
3. Switch to the popup window in your browser
4. Paste the token in the field
5. Click Authorize

The popup closes automatically. Back in Claude.ai Settings → Connectors, the LMCP entry lists the tools returned by tools/list— with forwarding ON, that is setup_install plus the full data-tool catalog (100+ tools). You only do this OAuth step once; Claude.ai remembers your access token for the lifetime of the connector.

Step 5: Try It in a Chat

Open a new conversation in Claude.ai. Make sure the LMCP connector is enabled in the chat (the connector toggle in the input bar). Then ask in plain language:

• “List my email accounts”
• “What meetings do I have today?”
• “Show me the latest messages in the engineering Teams channel”

Claude routes the request through the Cloud Relay to your Mac, which executes the tool and returns the result. You’ll see a “Used LMCP integration” indicator above the response, and the answer usually arrives in under 2 seconds.

What Tools Are Available?

With Cloud Data Forwarding on, Claude.ai sees the same 100+ tools as the local lmcp connector:

• Mail (Mail.app + Outlook): list, read, search, send, reply, move, save attachments
• Calendar: list events, create, delete, check availability
• Contacts: search, list, get details
• Microsoft Teams: list chats, read messages, channel messages (no Graph API needed)
• OneDrive: list, read, write, move, delete, search files
• Notes & Reminders: list, search, create, complete
• Messages: read iMessage chats
• OmniFocus: list tasks, projects, complete, search
• Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF: read and create
• Finder & Safari: search files (Spotlight), list folders, bookmarks

Turning It Off

Open LMCP Settings → Connect tab, toggle Cloud Data Forwarding back to OFF. The change is instant: Claude.ai immediately loses access to data tools (it’ll see the “cloud data forwarding is off” message). Your tunnel stays connected for onboarding (setup_install), but no data flows through.

Troubleshooting

Claude.ai shows “0 tools” or only setup_install after install

Cloud Data Forwarding is OFF — only setup_installis advertised until you opt in. Open LMCP Settings → Connect tab and toggle Cloud Data Forwarding ON. If that doesn’t refresh the tool list, uninstall and re-add the connector in Claude.ai Settings → Connectors to force a fresh OAuth flow.

Authorization popup says “Token doesn’t match any active LMCP tunnel”

Make sure LMCP is running (menu bar dot should be green) and Cloud Data Forwarding is ON. Re-copy the token from LMCP Settings → Connect tab → Step 3 and try again.

Step 3 (URL and Token) not appearing in LMCP Settings

Step 3 only appears when both the Cloud Relay is connected (green dot) and Cloud Data Forwarding is ON. Check both are active in the Connect tab.

Related Guides

• How to Connect ChatGPT to Your Mac (Cloud Relay)
• How to Give Claude Desktop Access to Email on Mac
• Can AI Read Your Emails Without Sending Them to the Cloud?