Claude Desktop custom connector

Local MCP Server HTTPS Setup with Claude Desktop (macOS)

https://gitlab.com/nicolaw/unifi-protect-mcp/ https://127.0.0.1:8412/mcp

1. Used mkcert to generate locally trusted certificates for loopback addresses.

brew install mkcert
mkcert -install
mkcert 127.0.0.1 localhost ::1
export NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS="$(mkcert -CAROOT)/rootCA.pem"

2. MCP Server Config (foo.yaml):

   ---
   listener: 
     bind_address: "127.0.0.1" 
     port: 8412
     tls_cert_file: "127.0.0.1+2.pem"
     tls_key_file: "127.0.0.1+2-key.pem"
     insecure_http: false

3. Add to macOS system trust store.

   sudo security add-trusted-cert -d -r trustRoot -k "$(mkcert -CAROOT)/rootCA.pem"

Claude CLI is (kinda) able to see the local development MCP server, but then bombs out when trying to actually talk to it due to a TLS certificate trust failure.

% export NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS="$(mkcert -CAROOT)/rootCA.pem"
 
% claude mcp add --transport http unifiprotect https://127.0.0.1:8412/mcp
Added HTTP MCP server unifiprotect with URL: https://127.0.0.1:8412/mcp to local config
File modified: /Users/nicolaw/.claude.json [project: /Users/nicolaw/src/unifi-protect-mcp]
 
% claude mcp list
Checking MCP server health...
 
unifiprotect: https://127.0.0.1:8412/mcp (HTTP) - ✓ Connected

Adding to the Claude Desktop application on macOS is impossible as it seems to validate it more than the Claude CLI does during the configuration time process. I can only assume it is failing for the same TLS trust issues.

None of the following work-around seem to work:

1. Injecting into macOS Window Server (Session-wide): launchctl setenv NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS "$(mkcert -CAROOT)/rootCA.pem"

2. Passing via macOS open command:
   open -a "Claude" --env NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS="$(mkcert -CAROOT)/rootCA.pem"

3. Executing the underlying binary directly:
   NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS="$(mkcert -CAROOT)/rootCA.pem" /Applications/Claude.app/Contents/MacOS/Claude

4. Chromium Localhost Bypass Flag:
   /Applications/Claude.app/Contents/MacOS/Claude --allow-insecure-localhost

5. Chromium Global Certificate Bypass Flag:
   /Applications/Claude.app/Contents/MacOS/Claude --ignore-certificate-errors

6. Node.js Global TLS Bypass:
   NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=0 /Applications/Claude.app/Contents/MacOS/Claude