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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.universalbench.dev/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Claude Desktop has supported MCP since late 2024. UniversalBench connects in one config edit, with no header to configure.

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Setup

1

Get your personal MCP URL

Sign up at universalbench.dev. Your dashboard shows your URL.
2

Open the config file

On macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.jsonOn Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.jsonCreate the file if it does not exist.
3

Add UniversalBench

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "universalbench": {
      "url": "https://mcp.universalbench.dev/u/ub_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
    }
  }
}
That is the entire config. One URL. No headers field. Claude Desktop reads the URL on startup and the tools appear.
4

Restart Claude Desktop

Quit fully (not just close the window) and reopen. UniversalBench tools appear in the conversation tool list.

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What you can do now

Claude Desktop is great for ad hoc analysis. Try:
Calculate the largest pension fund returns in 2026 so far. Search the web, pull the numbers into a table, and analyze the top 10.
Claude Desktop uses UniversalBench to call web_search for current data, parse the results with Python, and return clean analysis. Or:
Encrypt my Stripe API key and store it. From now on, use it whenever I ask you to do anything with payments.
Claude uses secrets_vault to store the key once, then injects it on every subsequent payment related call without you pasting it again.

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Tips

Claude Desktop persists conversations across sessions but loses tool state. UniversalBench’s session_id solves this for long running workflows where you want context to survive a restart.

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Troubleshooting

ProblemFix
Tools do not appearCheck Developer → MCP Logs in Claude Desktop for connection errors
Config file path wrongThe path is OS specific, see Step 2 above
401 or 403 errorsRe-copy the URL from your UB dashboard. Even one wrong character breaks auth