title: Expose description: Easily build MCP tools for Claude desktop app
Expose lets you build MCP tools that you can invoke with MCP client like Claude desktop app.
- **Self-hosted**: You can easily self-host tools and deploy them on your own server.
- **Unified gateway**: Generates a single HTTP endpoint that you can register with `expose-cli`
- **Flexible**: Easily configure and customize your tools to fit your needs.
Getting started
- **Setup expose CLI** ```bash curl -fsSL https://github.com/a0dotrun/expose/releases/download/stable/download_cli.sh | bash ```
- **Install dependencies** ```bash npm i @a0dotrun/expose ```
- **Create server** ```bash touch src/server.ts ``` ```ts title=src/server.ts import { create } from "@a0dotrun/expose" const app = create({ tools: [], }) export default { port: 3000, fetch: app.fetch, } ```
- **Define your tools**
- **Start server** ```bash npm run dev ``` You can also deploy the server and note down the public URL.
- **Register in Claude desktop app** MACOS Claude desktop MCP config path: `~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`
_replace localhost with your public URL_
expose is created by [@\_sanchitrk](https://x.com/_sanchitrk) at [a0](https://a0.run)
Acknowledgements
I was inspired by [opencontrol](https://github.com/toolbeam/opencontrol)