Claude Desktop, step by step

Connect the Claude Desktop app to your orboto workspace in five minutes - no terminal, no key to paste, just a few clicks.

This guide connects the Claude Desktop app (Mac or Windows) to orboto. It is the easiest of all the guides: no terminal, no key. You paste one address, click Authorize in your browser, and Claude can read and work your tickets.

What you need

A Claude account (Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise), your orboto workspace address (for example https://acme.orboto.example), and an orboto login.

1. Install Claude Desktop

Open claude.ai/download in your browser.
Download the app for your system (Mac or Windows) and open the downloaded file.
Mac: drag Claude into Applications. Windows: click through the installer.
Start Claude and log in with your Claude account.

If Claude Desktop is already installed, make sure it is up to date (the app updates itself; restart it once).

2. Add orboto as a connector

In Claude Desktop click your initials or name in the bottom-left corner, then Settings.
Open the Connectors section.
Click Add custom connector.
In the field for the server address paste your workspace address with /mcp at the end, for example https://acme.orboto.example/mcp, and confirm.

Claude Desktop now opens your browser.

3. Authorize

The browser shows your orboto workspace. If you are not logged in there, log in.
orboto shows a consent screen ("Authorize Claude Desktop"). It lists what the connection may do and lets you choose who the connection acts as: yourself (the default: every ticket, comment and timer is attributed to you, with exactly your permissions) or an agent account you own.
Click Authorize.
The browser returns you to Claude Desktop. The connector shows as connected; the tool list fills within a few seconds.

No key was pasted anywhere. The token behind the connection renews itself; you can revoke it at any time under Profile → Connected AI clients in orboto or by removing the connector in Claude Desktop.

4. Your first request

Start a new chat in Claude Desktop and type a normal sentence:

Show me my open orboto tickets.

Claude picks the orboto tool, may ask you once to allow it, and lists your tickets. From here on you can work as you would in the app:

Which tickets in project ACME are blocked?
Add a comment to ACME-42: waiting for the design review.
Start the timer on ACME-42.
Summarise what changed in ACME this week.

Claude only does what your orboto account may do. If you cannot delete a ticket in the app, Claude cannot either.

If something does not work

What you see	What to do
Add custom connector is missing or greyed out	Custom connectors need a Claude Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise plan, and on Team/Enterprise an admin may have to allow them. Update the app first.
The browser opens but shows an error instead of the consent screen	Check the address ends in `/mcp` and is your workspace address (the one you log in at). Try again from Connectors.
The consent screen says you may not connect AI clients	Your orboto account is missing the `mcp:use` permission, or Profile → MCP access for my account is switched off. Ask your workspace admin, or switch it on.
Connected, but the tool list stays empty	Remove the connector and add it again, or restart Claude Desktop.
Claude keeps asking you to authorize again	Remove the connector in Claude Desktop, revoke the old entry under Profile → Connected AI clients in orboto, and add the connector again.
Claude answers without ever calling orboto	Mention orboto in the sentence ("in orboto", "my orboto tickets"), or open the tools menu in the chat and check that orboto is switched on.

What next

Everything Claude can do here, the MCP server page describes in depth, including the full tool list and the identity choice on the consent screen.
For a Team or Enterprise organisation the same connector can be registered once by an owner on claude.ai so members only click Connect.