Claude Desktop

Integrate Intutic governance with Claude Desktop — Anthropic's desktop application.

How it works

Claude Desktop has no hook system and no setting that changes where it sends LLM requests — its model traffic goes to Anthropic directly. Intutic governs it through the MCP servers it runs: with each MCP server in claude_desktop_config.json wrapped by the Intutic MCP governance proxy, every MCP tool call is evaluated before it reaches the server.

Setup

1. Initialize Intutic

intutic init

The CLI detects Claude Desktop and registers it as a harness:

  ✔ claude-desktop → /Users/you/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

intutic init only detects the harness and records it in ~/.intutic/config.json; it writes no harness files. In the open core, wrap the servers yourself: add entries like the ones under Example claude_desktop_config.json to the file.

2. Start the proxy

intutic start

The configuration file, claude_desktop_config.json, is at:

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

Claude Desktop has no instructions file: its instructions live in the app's projects, so the text of your rule sets does not reach the model. See Where rule sets go.

Example claude_desktop_config.json

1. Standalone Governance Server Mode

Exposes Intutic governance tools (intutic_governance_status, intutic_list_sops, intutic_list_incidents, intutic_hold_status, intutic_mcp_registry_status, intutic_mcp_budget_remaining) directly to Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "intutic": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "-p",
        "@intutic/mcp-governance-proxy",
        "intutic-mcp-proxy"
      ]
    }
  }
}

2. Governed Proxy Mode (Wrapping Downstream MCP Servers)

Wraps downstream MCP servers (e.g. Filesystem or Postgres) to intercept and evaluate tool calls before execution:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "intutic_governed_filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "-p",
        "@intutic/mcp-governance-proxy",
        "intutic-mcp-proxy",
        "--workspace-id",
        "wk_production",
        "--",
        "npx",
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
        "/Users/username"
      ]
    }
  }
}