Configure Clients

Ultra works with Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Codex, Windsurf, Roo Code, Goose, Gemini, LM Studio, and Amazon Q Developer. After installing Ultra, configure your AI clients to route MCP traffic through it.

Client
Terminal

Automatic Configuration

When you install Ultra using the downloaded installer, the Ultra Setup wizard launches automatically. It detects your installed AI clients and lets you select which ones to configure.

Ultra Setup wizard showing detected AI clients

Check the clients you want to configure and click Configure. Ultra updates each client’s settings so all MCP traffic routes through Ultra automatically.After setup:

Restart your AI client (e.g., quit and reopen Claude Desktop)
Start using your AI tools as usual — Ultra is now monitoring all MCP traffic in the background

You can re-run the setup wizard at any time from the Ultra application to add or reconfigure clients.

Interactive Wizard

Run the install wizard to be guided through the process:

ultra install

The wizard detects installed MCP clients, lets you choose which ones to configure, and sets Ultra as the MCP server in each client’s configuration.

Non-Interactive Mode

Install into a specific client:

# Claude Desktop
ultra install --client claude

# Cursor
ultra install --client cursor

# Codex
ultra install --client codex

# Skip confirmation
ultra install --client claude --yes

Install into all detected clients:

ultra install --yes

List Detected Clients

Preview which clients Ultra can detect without making changes:

ultra install --list

This shows each client’s installation status, config path, and any existing MCP server configurations.

Flags

Flag	Short	Default	Description
`--client`	`-c`		Target client (`claude`, `cursor`, `codex`)
`--config`			Path to Ultra config file
`--no-backup`		`false`	Skip backup of existing config
`--yes`	`-y`	`false`	Skip confirmation prompt
`--list`	`-l`	`false`	List detected clients

Supported Clients

Client	Supported
Claude Desktop	Yes
Cursor	Yes
VS Code	Yes
Claude Code	Yes
Codex	Yes
Goose	Yes

What It Does

When you configure a client (either through the setup wizard or CLI), Ultra registers itself as an MCP server in the client’s configuration file. The client then launches Ultra via ultra start whenever it needs MCP tools. Ultra in turn connects to your configured upstream servers.

Technical details

For JSON-based clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Claude Code, Goose):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ultra": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/ultra",
      "args": ["start"]
    }
  }
}

For Codex (TOML-based config at ~/.codex/config.toml):

[mcp_servers.ultra]
command = "/usr/local/bin/ultra"
args = ["start"]

Client Config Paths

Client	Config Location
Claude Desktop (macOS)	`~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`
Claude Desktop (Windows)	`%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json`
Claude Desktop (Linux)	`~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`
Cursor	`~/.cursor/mcp.json`
VS Code	VS Code settings
Claude Code	`~/.claude/`
Codex	`~/.codex/config.toml`
Goose	`~/.config/goose/`

Ultra stores its own configuration in ~/.config/ultra/config.yaml. See Configuration for details.

Run ultra doctor -v in a terminal to verify that Ultra is correctly installed and your MCP clients are properly configured.

After Configuration

Restart your MCP client to load Ultra
Import existing MCP servers with ultra migrate (see Migrate Servers)
Or add new servers with ultra search and ultra add

Getting Started

Ultra Hub

Observability

Concepts

Configure Clients

Automatic Configuration

Interactive Wizard

Non-Interactive Mode

List Detected Clients

Flags

Supported Clients

What It Does

Client Config Paths

After Configuration

Getting Started

Ultra Hub

Observability

Concepts

​Automatic Configuration

​Interactive Wizard

​Non-Interactive Mode

​List Detected Clients

​Flags

​Supported Clients

​What It Does

​Client Config Paths

​After Configuration

Automatic Configuration

Interactive Wizard

Non-Interactive Mode

List Detected Clients

Flags

Supported Clients

What It Does

Client Config Paths

After Configuration