MCP server not showing up in Claude Code

The client never completed a handshake. This is a config problem, not an auth problem — a server that is connecting or failed in /mcp has not got as far as sending a key. If you would rather not debug a hand-written config, /connect writes one and confirms the handshake live.

Work through it in order

The client never completed a handshake. 1. Restart the client. MCP configs are read at startup. This is the fix surprisingly often. 2. Check the URL ends in /mcp. https://api.witwiki.app/mcp, not https://api.witwiki.app. A bare host returns 404 and the client reports it as a generic connection failure. 3. Check the transport is HTTP. "type": "http", or --transport http on the CLI. Clients default to stdio, which will try to execute your URL as a command. 4. Check the server is reachable:

curl -i https://api.witwiki.app/mcp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Anything other than a connection error means the network path is fine and the problem is in your client config.

In Claude Code, /mcp lists servers and their state — a server stuck in connecting or failed is a config problem, not an auth problem.