How to Set Up an MCP Server
Install an MCP server and connect it to your AI agent in about 2 minutes. We'll use Trim's free developer tools server as the example, but the steps work for any MCP server.
What you need
Node.js 18+ installed on your machine. Check with node --version in your terminal. If you don't have it, grab it from nodejs.org.
An MCP-compatible AI tool — Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Continue, or similar.
1 Find your config file
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
# Windows
%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
# Linux
~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
If the file doesn't exist yet, create it. If it already has content, you'll add to the existing mcpServers object.
claude mcp add trim-dev-tools npx trim-dev-tools-mcp
That's it for Claude Code — it handles the config automatically. Skip to step 3.
# Or edit directly:
~/.cursor/mcp.json
Same JSON format as Claude Desktop (shown in step 2).
2 Add the server config
Paste this into your config file:
"mcpServers": {
"trim-dev-tools": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "trim-dev-tools-mcp"]
}
}
}
The -y flag tells npx to install the package automatically if it isn't cached yet. On first run, it downloads the server. After that, it starts instantly.
If you already have other MCP servers configured, just add the "trim-dev-tools" block inside your existing "mcpServers" object.
3 Restart and verify
Restart your AI tool (close and reopen Claude Desktop, or restart the Cursor MCP process). The server's 16 tools appear automatically — your agent can now make HTTP requests, look up DNS records, check SSL certs, compute hashes, execute regex patterns, and more.
Try asking your agent something like:
"Check if api.github.com is returning a 200 and what SSL certificate it's using."
Instead of guessing, it'll actually make the request and inspect the certificate.
What tools are available?
The free Trim MCP server includes 16 tools across five categories: network operations (HTTP, DNS, SSL, port checking), cryptography (hashing, HMAC, UUID, random bytes, password generation), regex execution, encoding (JWT decode, Base64, URL), and formatting (epoch timestamps, JSON).
Troubleshooting
Server not showing up
Make sure you've restarted the AI tool after editing the config. In Claude Desktop, check the MCP icon in the bottom-left — it should show "trim-dev-tools" with a green status.
npx fails or times out
Try installing globally instead: npm install -g trim-dev-tools-mcp, then change the config to use "command": "trim-mcp" with no args.
Tools don't appear in conversation
Start a new conversation after adding the server. Some AI tools only load MCP servers at the start of a session.