Claude Desktop Setup

Connect Claude Desktop to Keplars in under two minutes using the MCP Server. Send emails and manage contacts through natural language.

Claude Desktop supports MCP servers natively. Once configured, Claude can send emails, manage audiences, and trigger campaigns on your behalf.

MCP requires Claude Desktop

This setup is for the Claude Desktop app. The Claude web interface at claude.ai does not support MCP servers.

Setup

Get your Keplars API keys

Open the Keplars dashboard and navigate to API Keys in your workspace settings. You need two keys:

Send key (prefixed live_): used for sending emails
Admin key (prefixed adm_): used for templates, contacts, campaigns, and domains

Create both and copy them. You will only see each key once.

You can provide only one key if you only need that subset of tools.

Install mcp-remote

mcp-remote is required to bridge Claude Desktop with the Keplars MCP server. Install it globally with npm:

npm install -g mcp-remote

You only need to do this once per machine.

Open your Claude Desktop config

open ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

If the file does not exist yet, create it at that path.

Press Win + R, paste the path below, and press Enter:

%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

This expands to C:\Users\<your-username>\AppData\Roaming\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json. If the file does not exist yet, create it at that path.

~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

If the file does not exist yet, create it at that path.

Add the Keplars MCP server

Paste the following into your config, replacing the placeholders with your actual keys:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "keplars": {
      "command": "mcp-remote",
      "args": [
        "https://mcp.keplars.com/mcp",
        "--header",
        "Authorization:<YOUR_SEND_KEY>",
        "--header",
        "X-Admin-Api-Key:<YOUR_ADMIN_KEY>"
      ]
    }
  }
}

If you already have other MCP servers in the config, add keplars alongside them inside mcpServers.

Restart Claude Desktop

Quit Claude Desktop fully and reopen it. The Keplars tools load on startup.

Verify the connection

Click the tools icon (hammer) in the Claude Desktop chat bar. You should see the Keplars tools listed, including send_transactional_email, list_audiences, and the rest.

Try it out

Once connected, ask Claude naturally:

Send a transactional email

"Send a transactional email to [email protected] with the subject 'Your order shipped' and let him know his order #1234 is on the way"

Add a contact and send a welcome email

"Add [email protected] to my newsletter audience aud-123 with first name Sarah, then send her the welcome template tmpl-abc"

Create and send a campaign

"List my Keplars audiences, then create a campaign called 'July Newsletter' targeting the newsletter audience using template tmpl-abc with subject 'What is new in July', then send it"

Campaigns and bulk sends trigger a confirmation step

When you ask Claude to send a campaign or a bulk email, it will first show you the audience size and ask you to confirm before dispatching. Reply "yes" to proceed or "no" to cancel.

Troubleshooting

Tools not appearing after restart

Check that the JSON in your config file is valid. A trailing comma or missing brace will silently prevent the config from loading. Use jsonlint.com to validate.

"Unauthorized" error on email sends

Your send key (live_ prefix) may be invalid or deleted. Generate a new one from the Keplars dashboard under API Keys and update the Authorization header in your config.

"Unauthorized" error on templates, contacts, or campaigns

These tools require the admin key (adm_ prefix) in the X-Admin-Api-Key header. Make sure you added it to the config. The send key alone is not enough for these operations.

Claude says it cannot find the tool

Make sure you restarted Claude Desktop fully (quit and reopen, not just closing the window). On macOS, right-click the dock icon and choose Quit.

Claude Desktop Setup

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