Install

Installing claims-mcp takes three steps: get the binary, register the server with your MCP client, and install the claims-audit skill that teaches the agent the workflow.

1. Install the server

Pick one.

Download a release

Each GitHub release has an archive per platform, a .sha256 checksum for each, and the audit report for that version (audit.pdf, the summary, and audit-full.pdf, every record):

On Linux and macOS:

sha256sum -c claims-mcp-<version>-<target>.tar.gz.sha256   # macOS: shasum -a 256 -c
tar -xzf claims-mcp-<version>-<target>.tar.gz
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
install -m 755 claims-mcp-<version>-<target>/claims-mcp ~/.local/bin/

On Windows (PowerShell), compare the hash with the one in the .sha256 file, then extract and put claims-mcp.exe in a directory on your PATH:

$archive = "claims-mcp-<version>-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc"
(Get-FileHash "$archive.zip" -Algorithm SHA256).Hash   # must match "$archive.zip.sha256"
Expand-Archive "$archive.zip" -DestinationPath .

Each archive also contains the README, LICENSE, NOTICE and the skills/ directory. The macOS binaries are not signed or notarized; if Gatekeeper blocks one, clear the quarantine flag with xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ~/.local/bin/claims-mcp.

Install with cargo

With Rust 1.89 or newer:

cargo install --locked --git https://github.com/hypotheosis/claims-mcp

This puts claims-mcp in ~/.cargo/bin.

Build from a clone

cargo build --release   # binary at target/release/claims-mcp

2. Register the server with Claude Code

With claims-mcp on your PATH, register it from the root of the project whose catalog it should keep:

claude mcp add --scope project claims -- claims-mcp --catalog claims.json

--scope project writes .mcp.json, so everyone working in the repository gets the server. Use --scope user to make it available in all your projects, or leave the flag off to register it for this project only. A relative --catalog resolves against the directory Claude Code is started in; an agent working in another checkout, such as a git worktree, names its own ledger with each tool’s catalog parameter. If you prefer to write the .mcp.json entry by hand (use an absolute command path if the binary is not on PATH):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "claims": {
      "command": "claims-mcp",
      "args": ["--catalog", "claims.json"]
    }
  }
}

Add the catalog’s lock and temporary files to .gitignore: for claims.json, these are .claims.json.lock and .claims.json.tmp.

Other MCP clients work the same way: run claims-mcp --catalog <path> as a stdio server. See the CLI reference for options.

3. Install the skill

The claims-audit skill teaches Claude the audit workflow. Copy it from a clone or a release archive, either for yourself (all projects):

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r skills/claims-audit ~/.claude/skills/

or into a project, committed so collaborators get it too:

mkdir -p .claude/skills
cp -r skills/claims-audit .claude/skills/

On Windows the user directory is %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills. Restart Claude Code, then continue with your first audit.