Get started with Claude Desktop and Neon MCP Server

This guide shows how to connect Claude Desktop to the Neon MCP Server so you can manage your Neon databases.

Setting up Neon MCP server

Prerequisites

• Node.js (>= v18): Install from nodejs.org.
• Claude Desktop: Install Anthropic's Claude Desktop.
• Neon Account: Sign up for a free Neon account at neon.tech.
• Neon API Key (for API key authentication): Get your Neon API Key.

Option 1: Setting up the remote hosted Neon MCP Server

Choose one of the following methods to set up the Remote Neon MCP server in Claude Desktop:

Using Claude ConnectorsBy modifying config file

1. Launch Claude Desktop and open the Search & Tools panel, and select Add Connector.
2. Click on Add a custom one to open the custom connector modal.
3. Enter Neon in the Name field and https://mcp.neon.tech/mcp in the Remote MCP server URL field, then click Add.
4. An OAuth window will open in your browser. Follow the prompts to authorize Claude to access your Neon account.
5. After authorization, you can start using the Neon MCP server with Claude.

Option 2: API key authentication

This method uses the hosted Neon MCP Server with a Neon API key.

1. Open claude_desktop_config.json (Claude Desktop → Settings → Developer → Edit Config).

2. Add the "Neon" server entry within the mcpServers object. Replace <YOUR_NEON_API_KEY> with your Neon API key:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "Neon": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": [
           "-y",
           "mcp-remote@latest",
           "https://mcp.neon.tech/mcp",
           "--header",
           "Authorization:${NEON_AUTH_HEADER}"
         ],
         "env": {
           "NEON_AUTH_HEADER": "Bearer <YOUR_NEON_API_KEY>"
         }
       }
     }
   }

3. Restart Claude Desktop.

Verifying the connection

Verify the connection:

1. In Claude click on the search and tools icon to see the available tools.
2. You should see the Neon MCP server's tools listed. Click on the neon tool to see the available tools in detail. Ask Claude "List my Neon projects" to verify the connection. For example, you might see output similar to this:

Resources

• MCP Protocol
• Neon Docs
• Neon API Reference
• Neon API Keys
• Neon MCP server GitHub