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Connect an Agent page: the "Claude (claude.ai / Desktop)" card claims local/intranet reach that the custom-connector dialog cannot deliver, and advertises an http:// endpoint interactive clients reject #16882

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@yinlianghui

Summary

Two statements on Setup → Connect an Agent (/_console/apps/com.objectstack.setup/page/connect_agent) do not survive contact with the clients they describe. Both were measured 2026-09-08 against a local dev server (hotcrm 789a7324, objectstack 17.3.0, Claude for Mac 1.46388.x / Claude Code 2.1.260).

1. The "Claude (claude.ai / Desktop)" card advertises a path that cannot reach a local or intranet deployment

Card text (i18n connectAgent.claude.body / reachability):

Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, then paste this URL. Sign in through the browser when prompted.
claude.ai (web) connects from Anthropic's servers — the deployment must be reachable over public HTTPS. Claude Desktop and local clients also reach intranet deployments.

What the desktop app actually does in Customize → Connectors → Add → Add custom connector:

  • http://localhost:4001/api/v1/mcp → rejected client-side: URL must start with 'https'
  • https://localhost:4443/api/v1/mcp (TLS terminated by a local reverse proxy, CA trusted, OS_AUTH_URL set, discovery documents advertising https) → Checking server · Connect to the server · Couldn't reach this address · Nothing answered at this URL. The manual-configuration screen that follows still has the connection initiated from Anthropic's side.

Anthropic's own documentation for custom connectors: "your MCP server must be reachable over the public internet from Anthropic's IP ranges. Servers hosted on a private corporate network, behind a VPN, or blocked by a firewall won't connect." The desktop app's Add custom connector is the same claude.ai connector system, so the sentence "Claude Desktop and local clients also reach intranet deployments" is not true for that card. (Local reach is true for the Claude Code card — claude mcp add / plugin — which is a different mechanism.)

2. The endpoint shown on the page is http:// whenever the server was started without OS_AUTH_URL

On a plain objectstack dev the page — and the 🤖 MCP server boot hint — print http://localhost:4001/api/v1/mcp. The Claude desktop app refuses OAuth against that URL (Refused to open sign-in URL … must be https), and the custom-connector dialog refuses it outright (see above). So the page hands a first-time user a URL that both interactive Claude surfaces will reject, with no hint that https is required. (Related: #16804 asks for a dev https mode; this card is about what the page says.)

Suggested copy changes

Related: #16530, #16549, #16746, #16804.

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