For Claude Desktop users

Publish HTML from Claude Desktop — live in seconds.

Add htmldrop's hosted MCP server as a custom connector, ask Claude Desktop to publish, and get a live shareable URL back. No API keys, no config files, no build step.

https://htmldrop.app/mcp

Add that URL as a custom connector — Settings → Connectors → add a custom connector → paste and save. No API key to create, paste, or rotate: Claude Desktop opens a sign-in page in your browser, and you approve it once.

◆ Smithery npm

Install details

  1. Add the htmldrop connector. Open Claude Desktop's Settings, go to Connectors, choose to add a custom connector, and paste the server URL https://htmldrop.app/mcp.
  2. Sign in when the browser opens. Claude Desktop starts an OAuth sign-in in your browser. Approve it once; Claude Desktop holds a short-lived token and refreshes it for you, and no credential is written to a config file.
  3. Publish. Ask Claude Desktop to publish your HTML or Markdown — it calls htmldrop_publish and hands back the live slug.htmldrop.app URL.

Try it

Open Claude Desktop's chat and try any of these:

BuildBuild me a single-page sales dashboard with three KPI cards and a bar chart for fake Q1 SaaS data, then publish it to htmldrop.
ConvertTake the README.md in this repo and publish it as a clean documentation page on htmldrop.
One-pagerMake me a tasteful HTML landing page for a side project called "Hexamail" and publish it to htmldrop.

CI, automation, and clients that can't reach remote servers

Automation can't complete a browser sign-in, so there's a second path: the npm stdio server, authenticated with an API token. Use it for CI jobs and headless scripts — not for everyday work in Claude Desktop.

# Inject the token from your CI secrets or OS keychain — never a literal in a file
export HTMLDROP_API_TOKEN="<your token — from dashboard, store in a secret manager>"
npx -y @htmldrop.app/mcp

If you specifically need the local server inside Claude Desktop rather than the connector, install the .mcpb bundle: double-click it, enter your token once, and Claude Desktop keeps it in your OS keychain instead of a plaintext config file.

Create the token at htmldrop.app/dashboard/settings → API tokens; it's shown once and carries full access to your account. Never commit the literal value to a repository or paste it into a config file you'll check in — reference it from your secret store, and revoke it from the dashboard the moment it may have leaked.

Troubleshooting

The sign-in page never opened

Claude Desktop hands the sign-in to your system's default browser. If nothing appears, check that a default browser is set and that no pop-up blocker swallowed the window, then try adding the connector again.

Signed in, but the tools still fail

The stored authorization has gone stale. Remove the htmldrop connector in Settings → Connectors and add https://htmldrop.app/mcp again — that forces a fresh sign-in.

Claude Desktop doesn't see the htmldrop tools

Look for a small 🔌 icon in the bottom-right of the message composer — clicking it lists the connectors and MCP servers in play. If htmldrop is missing, the connector wasn't saved; re-add the URL. If it's listed but errored, a corporate proxy or offline machine may be blocking https://htmldrop.app/mcp.

"No API token" error

This one only applies to the CI path above — the connector never asks for a token. Verify HTMLDROP_API_TOKEN resolved to the token string from your secret store (not the friendly name you gave the token in the dashboard, and not an empty variable).

"plan_limit" error in the chat

You've hit your plan's site cap (3 active drops on Free). Delete a drop in the dashboard or upgrade.

Want to verify the install worked?

In Claude Desktop chat: "List my htmldrop sites." If the tool is wired up, Claude Desktop calls htmldrop_list and replies with your drops.

Open your dashboard →