Claude Desktop (chat) and Claude Cowork (collaborative agent) both support MCP servers. Connecting Pyrite gives Claude persistent memory across conversations.
Claude Desktop setup
1. Install Pyrite locally: `pip install "pyrite[all]"` (see local-install) 2. Edit your Claude Desktop config:
macOS: `~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json` Windows: `%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json`
```json { "mcpServers": { "pyrite": { "command": "pyrite", "args": ["mcp"] } } } ```
3. Restart Claude Desktop
What this enables
Claude can now:
Claude Cowork
Cowork uses the same MCP configuration. When working in Cowork mode, multiple Claude instances can read and write the same KB, enabling collaborative knowledge building.
Example conversations
Research assistant: > "I'm researching encryption policy. Search my research KB for anything related." > Claude searches, finds entries, synthesizes across them.
Personal knowledge management: > "I just read an article about systems thinking. Create a note capturing the key ideas and link it to my existing entry on feedback loops." > Claude creates the entry with wikilinks to related concepts.
Team knowledge: > "What decisions have we made about the API design? Check the ADRs." > Claude searches for ADR entries and summarizes the decisions.
Read-only mode
If you only want Claude to read (not create or modify entries):
```json { "mcpServers": { "pyrite": { "command": "pyrite", "args": ["mcp", "--tier", "read"] } } } ```
Multiple KBs
Pyrite's MCP server exposes all registered KBs. Claude can search across all of them or target a specific one:
> "Search the schneier KB for entries about cryptography" > "Create a note in my research KB about today's findings"