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Claude MCP

The Lantern MCP server lets you interact with your Lantern data directly from Claude. List clients, view and create issues, update statuses, and check assignments — without leaving your AI assistant.

It works with Claude Desktop and any other tool that supports the Model Context Protocol.

#Requirements

  • A Lantern account on any paid plan
  • Claude Desktop installed
  • Node.js 18 or later

#Step 1 — Generate an API key

  1. In your Lantern workspace, go to Settings → Integrations.
  2. Scroll to API Keys and click New key.
  3. Give the key a name (e.g. Claude Desktop) and click Generate.
  4. Copy the key immediately — it is only shown once.

Your key starts with ltn_. Keep it somewhere safe; treat it like a password.

#Step 2 — Install the MCP server

bash
npm install -g lantern-mcp

This installs the lantern-mcp command globally on your machine.

#Step 3 — Add to Claude Desktop

Open the Claude Desktop config file in a text editor:

  • Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
  • Windows: C:\Users\[your name]\AppData\Roaming\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

If the file does not exist yet, create it. Add the following, replacing ltn_yourkey with the key you copied:

json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lantern": {
      "command": "lantern-mcp",
      "env": {
        "LANTERN_API_KEY": "ltn_yourkey",
        "LANTERN_API_URL": "https://lanternhq.app"
      }
    }
  }
}

If you already have other MCP servers configured, add the "lantern" block inside the existing "mcpServers" object — don't replace the whole file.

#Step 4 — Restart Claude Desktop

Fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop. It needs to restart to load the new server config.

Once it restarts, you should see Lantern listed in the available tools. You can verify by asking Claude: "What Lantern tools do you have access to?"

#What you can ask

The server exposes six tools. Claude knows when to use them — you do not need to name them directly. Just describe what you want in plain language.

Browsing your workspace

"List all my clients."

"Who's on the team? I need to assign something."

"What open issues does Acme Corp have right now?"

"Show me all high-severity issues that haven't been assigned yet."

Getting issue detail

"Pull up the full details on issue abc-123, including comments."

"What did the client say in the thread on that login bug?"

Creating issues

"Create a bug report for BuildNL: the checkout page crashes on Safari. High urgency."

"Log an issue — client is Apex, title 'Upload timeout', description is that file uploads fail after 30 seconds. Assign it to me."

Updating issues

"Mark issue abc-123 as fixed."

"Assign the three oldest open issues for Acme to Jamie."

"Change the urgency on that Safari bug to high."

#Revoking a key

If you need to revoke access, go to Settings → Integrations → API Keys, hover the key you want to remove, and click the trash icon. The key stops working immediately.

To reconnect Claude, generate a new key and update your claude_desktop_config.json.

#Troubleshooting

Claude doesn't show Lantern tools after restarting

Make sure lantern-mcp is in your PATH. Run lantern-mcp in a terminal — if the command is not found, the global npm bin directory may not be in your PATH. Try running npm install -g lantern-mcp again and check npm bin -g to find where it was installed.

"Invalid API key" errors

Double-check the key in your config file. Make sure there are no extra spaces and that the key starts with ltn_. If the key was revoked, generate a new one.

"LANTERN_API_KEY environment variable is required"

The env block in your config file is missing or the key name is misspelled. It must be exactly LANTERN_API_KEY.