Connect NetLicensing MCP to Claude, VS Code, GitHub Copilot and JetBrains
Any MCP client can talk to the NetLicensing MCP server. Local clients start it as a child process over stdio, and remote clients connect to a server running in HTTP mode. Either way you need a NetLicensing API key, or NETLICENSING_ALLOW_DEMO=true to play in the sandbox. Give the agent a key with the lowest role that covers what you want it to do.
Claude Desktop
Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows), then restart Claude Desktop.
Using uvx:
{
"mcpServers": {
"netlicensing": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["netlicensing-mcp"],
"env": {
"NETLICENSING_API_KEY": "your_key_here"
}
}
}
}
Using Docker (stdio):
{
"mcpServers": {
"netlicensing": {
"command": "docker",
"args": [
"run", "-i", "--rm",
"-e", "NETLICENSING_API_KEY=your_key_here",
"ghcr.io/labs64/netlicensing-mcp:latest"
]
}
}
}
Sandbox without an account: replace the env block with "NETLICENSING_ALLOW_DEMO": "true".
Other clients that use an mcpServers block, Claude Code for example, take the same JSON.
VS Code with GitHub Copilot agent mode
The repository ships a .vscode/mcp.json that sets up Copilot agent mode for you. Put NETLICENSING_API_KEY in your shell environment or a .env file, open mcp.json, and click Start in the banner above it. The NetLicensing tools then show up in the Copilot Chat tool list in agent mode.
JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ IDEA and others)
In Copilot Chat, switch to Agent mode, open the tools menu, choose Add More Tools… and paste the same JSON block as for Claude Desktop.
Remote and shared deployments
Run the server in HTTP mode, behind a TLS-terminating reverse proxy:
docker run -d -p 8000:8000 ghcr.io/labs64/netlicensing-mcp:latest http
Don’t put an API key in the shared server’s environment. Let each client send its own:
{
"mcpServers": {
"netlicensing": {
"url": "https://mcp.example.com/mcp?apikey=YOUR_API_KEY"
}
}
}
If your client can send custom HTTP headers, use X-NetLicensing-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY or Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY instead of the query parameter. That keeps the key out of URLs and access logs.
Verify the connection
Ask the agent “List all products in my NetLicensing account.” If you see sample demo products instead of your own, the server is running in demo mode, and the responses will say "demo_mode": true.