Claude Code

Claude Code Integration

Claude Code is Anthropic’s command-line AI assistant with built-in MCP support. It runs in your terminal and can access MCP servers configured in your project or user settings.

Prerequisites

• Node.js and npm installed
• Cognee MCP server running (see Quickstart or Local Setup)
• OpenAI API key (for Cognee’s LLM operations)

Setup Steps

1. Install Claude Code

   npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
   

2. Navigate to Your Project

   cd /path/to/your/project
   

3. Add Cognee Server

   Choose the command that matches how you started the Cognee MCP server:

   Docker (HTTP)

   Use this if you started the server with Docker:

   claude mcp add --transport http cognee http://localhost:8000/mcp -s project
   

   This creates a configuration in your project’s .mcp.json file that connects to the HTTP endpoint.

   Options:

   • -s project: Stores configuration in the project (requires approval per project)
   • Omit -s project to store at user level (applies to all projects)
4. Start Claude Code and Approve

   claude
   

   On first run in this project, you will see:

   Approve project MCP servers?
   • cognee    /path/to/cognee-mcp
   

   Select Enable or press Enter. Claude Code can now call Cognee tools automatically.

5. Use Cognee Tools

   Claude Code will use Cognee tools when relevant to your requests. You can explicitly ask:

   • “Add this code to Cognee memory”
   • “Search Cognee for authentication patterns”
   • “Use Cognee to codify this repository”

Where to Use This Configuration

The configuration is stored in .mcp.json in your project directory (with -s project) or in your user settings (without it). Claude Code reads this file when starting a session in that directory.

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