Claude Desktop with Node9 on Windows

[deepakm81]

Hi, I'm unable to get node9 to work with Claude Desktop on Windows 11. I've tried a few things:

1. node9 agents add "claudeDesktop" - this says unknown agent. claudeDesktop is installed in the default location.
2. I've also tried editing Claude Desktops config file to add node9 as a wrapper for the filesystem MCP, and encountered issues - either Claude fails to start, or it returns failure that it couldn't connect to the MCP server.
   Is there another way to get node9 to work with Claude Desktop?
   Thx
   Deepak

[TOMOYAKATO-292]

Short version: this looks like a name-resolution bug in the CLI rather than anything wrong with your setup — on current main, node9 agents add claudeDesktop never reaches its setup function. node9 init goes through a different code path and does wire Claude Desktop, so that is the workaround.

Why node9 agents add claudeDesktop fails

In src/cli/commands/agents.ts the setup map is keyed in camelCase:

const SETUP_FN: Record<AgentName, () => Promise<void> | void> = {
  claude: setupClaude,
  ...
  claudeDesktop: setupClaudeDesktop,   // camelCase key
  ...
};

but the name you type is lower-cased before the lookup:

function resolveAgentName(agent: string): AgentName {
  const lower = agent.toLowerCase();
  return (lower === 'agy' ? 'antigravity' : lower) as AgentName;
}

and add then does:

const name = resolveAgentName(agent);   // "claudeDesktop" -> "claudedesktop"
const fn = SETUP_FN[name];              // SETUP_FN["claudedesktop"] === undefined
if (!fn) { /* Unknown agent */ }

Every other key is already all-lowercase (claude, gemini, codex, cursor, windsurf, vscode, opencode, pi, hermes, copilot, antigravity), so claudeDesktop is the only entry the lower-casing can never reach. That also means no spelling helps — claudeDesktop, claudedesktop and claude-desktop all resolve to claudedesktop, which is not a key.

The error text adds to the confusion: it prints AGENT_NAMES, which is Object.keys(SETUP_FN) and therefore includes claudeDesktop while refusing it. node9 agents remove claudeDesktop has the same problem.

I checked this by reading main. src/cli/commands/agents.ts has not changed since 2026-06-06 and the latest release is v2.15.0 (2026-09-17), so current builds should carry the same code — but I have not run the CLI or inspected the published bundle, so please confirm before treating it as a definitive diagnosis.

What works today

node9 init takes a different path — setupAgent() in src/setup.ts compares the exact camelCase name:

else if (agent === 'claudeDesktop') await setupClaudeDesktop();

and detectAgents() reports claudeDesktop: true when the config directory exists. So:

node9 init

should detect Claude Desktop and wrap your existing MCP servers through the gateway.

Worth knowing for context: Claude Desktop has no pre-execution hooks, so it is protected through the MCP gateway only. There is nothing hook-based to wire, which is why the flow differs from Claude Code.

If you would rather edit the config by hand

On Windows the file is %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json — claudeDesktopConfigPath() in src/setup.ts resolves it from APPDATA.

The wrapper shape from the README, applied to the filesystem server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "node9",
      "args": ["mcp", "--upstream", "npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem C:\\Users\\you\\projects"]
    }
  }
}

The part that is easy to get wrong: the whole upstream command is a single string passed to --upstream. Splitting it across separate array elements will not start the upstream server.

If Claude Desktop still fails to launch after that, the usual Windows cause is that node9 installed from npm is a .cmd shim while Claude Desktop spawns the process without a shell, so "command": "node9" can fail to resolve. Either use the absolute path to node9.cmd, or go through cmd:

{
  "command": "cmd",
  "args": ["/c", "node9", "mcp", "--upstream", "npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem C:\\Users\\you\\projects"]
}

I have not reproduced that last part on Windows myself, so treat it as the first thing to try rather than a confirmed diagnosis.

Suggested fix

src/agent-teardowns.ts already handles this shape by registering id: 'claudedesktop' with aliases: ['claude-desktop']. Doing the same in resolveAgentName — mapping claudedesktop and claude-desktop to claudeDesktop — would make agents add / agents remove agree with the help text that node9 init prints, which currently advertises claudeDesktop.

[node9ai]

Hi Deepak, sorry this sat without an answer from us. @TOMOYAKATO-292's diagnosis is right, and thank you for it: node9 agents add lowercases the name before the lookup, so claudeDesktop can never match.

The simplest way around it today:

npm install -g node9-ai
node9 login

node9 login connects your machine to your dashboard and wires the agents it detects, Claude Desktop included. From there you manage everything at https://app.node9.ai

If you'd rather run node9 locally, without an account, use node9 init instead of node9 login. It wires the same agents.

I'll post here when the fix for agents add ships. If Claude Desktop still isn't picked up, reply with the output and I'll look at it directly.