If you've been using AI Context Keeper with shareable links — copying a URL and pasting it into Claude — you already know how much better AI conversations get when they have your full context.
MCP takes that a step further. Instead of you pasting a link, Claude Desktop connects directly to your ACK knowledge base. It can search your documents, read your files, and even save new content back — all from inside the conversation, without you switching tabs or copying anything.
This guide walks you through the setup. It takes about 10 minutes, and you don't need any coding experience.
What You'll Need
- An AI Context Keeper account with at least a few documents in your knowledge base.
- Claude Desktop installed on your Mac or Windows computer.
- An ACK API key from your account settings. (Available on Pro and Premium plans.)
What You'll Get
Once connected, Claude Desktop will be able to:
- Search your knowledge base — Ask Claude "what do I have about competitor analysis?" and it will search your ACK documents and pull the relevant ones.
- Read your documents — Claude can read any file in your knowledge base directly, without you copying or pasting anything.
- Create new documents — When Claude produces something worth saving — a summary, an analysis, a framework — you can tell it to save that directly to your knowledge base, organized in whatever folder you choose.
- List your files and folders — Claude can browse your knowledge base structure to find what's relevant to your current conversation.
In other words: Claude becomes a participant in your knowledge base, not just a consumer of it.
Step-by-Step Setup
Step 1: Get Your ACK API Key. Log in to AI Context Keeper. Go to your account settings. Find the API section and generate an API key. Copy it — you'll need it in the next step.
Step 2: Open Claude Desktop's Configuration. Open Claude Desktop. Go to Settings (the gear icon) → Developer → Edit Config. This opens a file called claude_desktop_config.json. If it's empty or just has {}, that's normal — it means you haven't added any MCP servers yet.
Step 3: Add the AI Context Keeper MCP Server. Replace the contents of the file with the following (or add the ACK entry alongside any existing servers):
{
"mcpServers": {
"ai-context-keeper": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@aicontextkeeper/mcp-server"],
"env": {
"ACK_API_TOKEN": "your-api-key-here"
}
}
}
}Replace your-api-key-here with the API key you copied in Step 1.
Step 4: Restart Claude Desktop. Completely quit Claude Desktop (don't just close the window — right-click the dock/taskbar icon and select Quit or Exit). Then reopen it. When Claude Desktop restarts, it will launch the ACK MCP server in the background.
Step 5: Verify It's Working. Look for the hammer icon (🔨) in the Claude Desktop input area. Click it — you should see AI Context Keeper's tools listed (search, read, create, list). Try a simple test: type "What files do I have in my AI Context Keeper knowledge base?" Claude should list your documents and folders. If it does, you're connected.
How to Use It Day to Day
Once connected, you don't need to think about MCP. Just work with Claude naturally and reference your knowledge base when you need to.
Pull context into a conversation: "Read my brand voice document from ACK and use it to write a LinkedIn post about our new feature."
Save valuable outputs: "That competitive analysis is really good. Save it to my Research folder in ACK as 'Q2 Competitive Landscape.'"
Search across your knowledge: "Search my knowledge base for anything related to pricing strategy."
Build on previous work: "Read the marketing plan from last month in my knowledge base. Now update it with the results from this quarter."
The Compounding Loop — Now Automatic
If you've read our post on what makes an AI knowledge base valuable, you know the core concept: knowledge compounds when great AI outputs get saved back to your knowledge base, making future conversations better.
With the share-link approach, that loop requires a manual step — you click "Save to ACK" via the Chrome extension. With MCP, that loop can happen inside the conversation itself. Tell Claude to save something, and it's saved. No tab switching, no extra clicks. The barrier to capturing knowledge drops to near zero, which means more of your best AI work makes it into your knowledge base.
MCP + Share Links: They Work Together
Connecting via MCP doesn't replace share links — it adds to them. You'll still use share links when you're working in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or any AI tool that doesn't support MCP yet. And you'll still use the Chrome extension to save outputs from those tools.
MCP gives you a deeper integration specifically with Claude Desktop. Share links give you universal compatibility with everything. Together, they cover every scenario.
Troubleshooting
Claude doesn't show the hammer icon after restart: Make sure you fully quit Claude Desktop (not just closed the window). Check that your config file is at the correct location and the JSON syntax is valid.
Claude says it can't find ACK tools: Verify your API key is correct. Try regenerating it in your ACK account settings. Check that your ACK account is on a Pro or Premium plan (API access requires a paid plan).
Claude shows tools but gets errors when using them: Make sure you have Node.js installed (version 18 or higher). Open your terminal and type node --version to check. If you don't have Node.js, download it from nodejs.org.
It's still not working: Check Claude Desktop's logs: go to Settings → Developer → Logs. Look for error messages mentioning "ai-context-keeper." If you're stuck, contact us at [email protected] with the error message and we'll help.
What's Next
Once you're connected, start using Claude Desktop with your knowledge base for a few days. You'll notice the workflow shift — instead of managing context manually, you're having conversations where Claude actively draws from and contributes to your growing library of knowledge.
For the bigger picture on why this matters, read about how MCP turns your knowledge base into a living system. And if you're interested in the concept behind MCP itself, our plain-English MCP guide covers everything without the jargon.