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Charles MCP

Charles MCP is an MCP server that adds developer tools to AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. Charles Proxy MCP server for AI agents with live capture, structured traffic analysis, and agent-friendly tool contracts. It has 317 GitHub stars, is released under the MIT license and runs locally with uvx charles-mcp.

github.com/heizaheiza/Charles-mcp (opens in a new tab)

Install Charles MCP

Generated from the server's published package. Replace your-value with your own values.

Claude Desktop

claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "charles-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "charles-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "CHARLES_USER": "your-value",
        "CHARLES_PASS": "your-value",
        "CHARLES_MANAGE_LIFECYCLE": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Settings > Developer > Edit Config. macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\. Restart Claude Desktop afterwards.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --env CHARLES_USER=your-value --env CHARLES_PASS=your-value --env CHARLES_MANAGE_LIFECYCLE=your-value --transport stdio charles-mcp -- uvx charles-mcp

Cursor

.cursor/mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "charles-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "charles-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "CHARLES_USER": "your-value",
        "CHARLES_PASS": "your-value",
        "CHARLES_MANAGE_LIFECYCLE": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Project file; use ~/.cursor/mcp.json to enable it in every project.

VS Code

.vscode/mcp.json
{
  "servers": {
    "charles-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "charles-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "CHARLES_USER": "your-value",
        "CHARLES_PASS": "your-value",
        "CHARLES_MANAGE_LIFECYCLE": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Config formats checked against the official docs on Oct 7, 2026: modelcontextprotocol.io (opens in a new tab), code.claude.com (opens in a new tab), cursor.com (opens in a new tab), code.visualstudio.com (opens in a new tab).

Environment variables

Variables the server reads at startup.

NameRequiredDescription
CHARLES_USERNoShown in the README's example configuration.
CHARLES_PASSNoShown in the README's example configuration.
CHARLES_MANAGE_LIFECYCLENoShown in the README's example configuration.

About Charles MCP

Charles MCP Server 用于把 Charles Proxy 接入 MCP 客户端,让 agent 可以稳定地读取实时流量、分析历史录包,并在需要时再展开单条请求细节。 在 Charles 中依次进入:Proxy -> Web Interface Settings

  • ai-agent
  • charles-proxy
  • codex
  • developer-tools
  • mcp
  • openai
  • mcp-server
  • network-debugging

FAQ

Charles MCP FAQ

Still curious? Email info@appsgit.com.

What is Charles MCP?

Charles MCP is an MCP server that adds developer tools to AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. Charles Proxy MCP server for AI agents with live capture, structured traffic analysis, and agent-friendly tool contracts. It has 317 GitHub stars, is released under the MIT license and runs locally with uvx charles-mcp. The source code is at github.com/heizaheiza/Charles-mcp.

How do I install the Charles MCP MCP server?

Add the command uvx charles-mcp to your MCP client: put it in claude_desktop_config.json for Claude Desktop, run claude mcp add for Claude Code, or add it to .cursor/mcp.json (Cursor) or .vscode/mcp.json (VS Code). The snippets on this page are ready to paste.

Is Charles MCP free?

The server is open source under the MIT license, so running it is free. It does not declare any required API key.

Is Charles MCP actively maintained?

The most recent commit was on Jun 23, 2026. The latest release is v3.0.3, published Apr 21, 2026. appsgit only lists MCP servers with a commit in the last six months and re-checks every server daily.