Connect Claude Code

Who this is for: anyone running Claude Code, Anthropic’s terminal agent, on their own machine.

Short answer: use the local server, not the remote connector. Install the dodil CLI and it registers itself with Claude Code for you.

The recommended way — install the CLI

The dodil CLI is the MCP server, and its installer wires it into Claude Code automatically.


curl -fsSL https://cli.dodil.io | bash

Then log in once:


dodil auth login

That’s it. Restart Claude Code and the Dodil tools are there. (See what the installer does — MCP registration is one of its steps, and you can skip it with DODIL_SKIP_MCP_SETUP=1.)

Register it by hand

If you skipped the automatic step, or you’re wiring up a second machine:


claude mcp add dodil -- dodil mcp

dodil mcp speaks stdio — the agent starts the server as a child process on your machine and talks to it directly. Nothing is exposed on a network port.

Check it

In Claude Code:


/mcp

You should see dodil listed as connected. Then just ask: “list my Dodil buckets”.

Why local is better here

It already has your session. Auth is inherited from dodil auth login — no browser dance, no per-connection OAuth registration.
It runs on your machine, next to the code you’re working on, so it can act on local paths and local context.
No client registration churn. Nothing is created on Dodil’s login service each time you connect.
Code mode is available. dodil mcp --enable-exec adds a single dodil_exec tool that runs a Bash script with dodil on PATH, letting the agent chain a dozen Dodil calls in one step instead of one tool call at a time. The remote server refuses this by design — see Local server.

If you really want the remote server

It works — for example on a machine where you’d rather not install the CLI:


claude mcp add --transport http dodil https://mcp.dodil.io

Claude Code then opens your browser to log in at id.dodil.io and catches the result on a loopback callback (a temporary listener on your own computer at http://localhost/callback / http://127.0.0.1/callback — the RFC 8252 pattern for desktop apps). Dodil’s identity service trusts those addresses, so the login completes normally.

Trade-offs versus local: you get no dodil_exec code mode, and you’ll re-authenticate through the browser when the token expires.

Don’t add both at once under the same name. Pick one; if you switch, claude mcp remove dodil first.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	What to do
`/mcp` doesn’t list `dodil`	Confirm the CLI is installed (`dodil --help`) and on your `PATH`, then re-run `claude mcp add dodil -- dodil mcp` and restart Claude Code.
Tools report you’re not logged in	Run `dodil auth login` in your terminal, then `dodil auth status` to confirm. The agent cannot complete the browser login for you.
`dodil: command not found` from the agent	`~/.local/bin` isn’t on the `PATH` the agent inherits — see Install.
Remote connector loops on login	Your browser must be able to reach `id.dodil.io`, and the loopback listener must not be blocked by a local firewall.

Full list → Troubleshooting.