Setting up Global MCP Configuration for Claude Code

Problem: Local vs Global MCP Configuration

When working with Claude Code, MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers can be configured at different scopes:

Local scope: Configure MCPs to be available only within a specific project
User scope: Configure MCPs to be available globally across all your projects

By default, when you add an MCP server, it's configured locally - this means that the MCP is configured only to that specific project, and you need to do a new configuration for each project you're working in.

I work across multiple repos, and it was tedious to set up the multiple MCPs I work with for each project.

Checking Claude Code MCP Configuration

You can verify the scope that an MCP is configured at by first listing all the configured MCP servers:

❯ claude mcp list

This will show all your configured servers:

❯ claude mcp list
  playwright: npx @playwright/mcp@latest
  context7: https://mcp.context7.com/sse (SSE)
  perplexity-ask: npx -y server-perplexity-ask
  notionMCP: npx -y mcp-remote https://mcp.notion.com/sse

Then you can check the detailed configuration and scope of any specific MCP server:

❯ claude mcp get playwright

This might show something like:

❯ claude mcp get playwright
  playwright:
    Scope: Local (private to you in this project)
    Type: stdio
    Command: npx
    Args: @playwright/mcp@latest
    Environment:

The Solution: Remove local server and add the Global MCP Configuration

Before configuring Claude Code with a globally scoped MCP server, you first need to remove the local MCP server.

❯ claude mcp remove "playwright" -s local

Then, to make an MCP server available globally, you need to use the --scope user flag when adding them.

Example: Adding Playwright MCP Globally (user scope)

Run this command to add the Playwright MCP globally in Claude Code:

❯ claude mcp add playwright --scope user -- npx @playwright/mcp@latest

Benefits of Global MCP Configuration

Consistency: Same tools available across all projects
Efficiency: No need to reconfigure for each new project
Convenience: Tools like Playwright, etc. work immediately in any project

Here are the MCP servers that I use:

Notion integration (with API authentication):

GitHub link: https://github.com/makenotion/notion-mcp-server

❯ claude mcp add notionApi --scope user --env OPENAPI_MCP_HEADERS='{"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_NOTION_TOKEN", "Notion-Version": "2022-06-28"}' -- npx -y @notionhq/notion-mcp-server

Playwright for browser automation:

GitHub link: https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-mcp

❯ claude mcp add playwright --scope user -- npx @playwright/mcp@latest

Context7 documentation lookup (SSE server):

GitHub link: https://github.com/upstash/context7

❯ claude mcp add context7 --scope user --type sse -- https://mcp.context7.com/sse

Perplexity AI search:

GitHub link: https://github.com/ppl-ai/modelcontextprotocol

❯ claude mcp add perplexity-ask --scope user --env PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=YOUR_PERPLEXITY_API_KEY -- npx -y server-perplexity-ask

Task management AI:

GitHub link: https://github.com/eyaltoledano/claude-task-master

❯ claude mcp add taskmaster-ai --scope user -- npx -y --package=task-master-ai task-master-ai

Sequential thinking server:

GitHub link: https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers/tree/main/src/sequentialthinking

❯ claude mcp add sequential-thinking --scope user -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking

Atlassian integration:

GitHub link: https://github.com/sooperset/mcp-atlassian

❯ claude mcp add mcp-atlassian --scope user -- npx mcp-remote https://mcp.atlassian.com/v1/sse

Local zen server (adjust path to your installation):

GitHub link: https://github.com/BeehiveInnovations/zen-mcp-server

❯ claude mcp add zen --scope user -- /path/to/your/zen-mcp-server/.zen_venv/bin/python /path/to/your/zen-mcp-server/server.py