OpenAI MCP server

The OpenAI MCP Server allows you to query OpenAI models directly from Claude using the Model Context Protocol (MCP). This server acts as a bridge between Claude and OpenAI's AI models, enabling seamless interaction between these different AI systems.

Installation

To use the OpenAI MCP Server, you need to configure your Claude desktop application to recognize the server. Add the following configuration to your claude_desktop_config.json file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openai-server": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "src.mcp_server_openai.server"],
      "env": {
        "PYTHONPATH": "C:/path/to/your/mcp-server-openai",
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "your-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration Parameters

• Replace C:/path/to/your/mcp-server-openai with the actual path where you've installed the MCP server
• Replace your-key-here with your valid OpenAI API key

Usage

Once you've configured the MCP server in your Claude desktop application, Claude will be able to use OpenAI models through this server connection. The server handles:

• Converting requests from Claude to the format expected by OpenAI
• Sending the requests to OpenAI's API
• Returning the responses back to Claude

Making Queries

With the server properly configured, you can ask Claude to use OpenAI models by specifying this in your prompts. Claude will automatically route appropriate requests through the MCP server to OpenAI.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues connecting to OpenAI models:

• Verify your API key is valid and has sufficient quota
• Check the PYTHONPATH is correctly pointing to your installation directory
• Ensure the Claude desktop application is properly configured to use the MCP server

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "openai-server" '{"command":"python","args":["-m","src.mcp_server_openai.server"],"env":{"PYTHONPATH":"C:/path/to/your/mcp-server-openai","OPENAI_API_KEY":"your-key-here"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "openai-server": {
            "command": "python",
            "args": [
                "-m",
                "src.mcp_server_openai.server"
            ],
            "env": {
                "PYTHONPATH": "C:/path/to/your/mcp-server-openai",
                "OPENAI_API_KEY": "your-key-here"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "openai-server": {
            "command": "python",
            "args": [
                "-m",
                "src.mcp_server_openai.server"
            ],
            "env": {
                "PYTHONPATH": "C:/path/to/your/mcp-server-openai",
                "OPENAI_API_KEY": "your-key-here"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect