Conductor — MCP Config Manager for AI Developers

4 min read Original article ↗

Open source/Free forever/macOS first

Configure your MCP servers once. Use them everywhere.

Stop copy-pasting MCP configs between Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, and every new AI tool. Conductor keeps them all in sync, automatically.

Install with one command:

curl -fsSL https://conductor-mcp.vercel.app/install.sh | sh

Open Terminal and paste this command. It auto-detects your chip (Apple Silicon or Intel), downloads the latest version, installs to /Applications, and removes the macOS quarantine flag so the app opens without any “damaged” errors.

Or download DMG directlyView on GitHub

9 clients supported100% localMIT License

The Problem

Sound familiar?

Managing MCP configs across multiple AI tools is a mess. You shouldn't need a PhD in JSON wrangling just to use your servers everywhere.

The Copy-Paste Loop

Every new AI tool means finding the config file, copying JSON, pasting it, fixing the paths, and hoping you got the syntax right. Again.

claude_desktop_config.json

The Config Drift

You updated the server in Cursor but forgot about Claude Desktop. Now your configs are out of sync and nothing works the same way twice.

Claude Desktopv2.1.0

Cursorv2.0.3outdated

VS Codev1.9.0broken

The Plaintext Secret

API keys sitting in plain JSON files across your filesystem. No encryption, no central management, no way to rotate them easily.

{

"env": {

"OPENAI_KEY": "sk-proj-abc12..."// <-- yikes

}

}

How it works

One config. Every tool.

Three steps to never think about MCP configs again.

Scan your existing configs

Conductor automatically detects your installed AI clients and imports their MCP server configurations. No manual setup required.

Detected Configs

Claude Desktop

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/

One source of truth

Edit, add, and remove MCP servers from a single beautiful interface. Configure environment variables, authentication, and server settings in one place.

Server Configuration

github-mcpactive

type: sse

url: https://mcp.github.com

Push to every app

One click syncs your configuration to all connected clients. Conductor writes the right format for each app automatically.

Compatibility

Works with your entire toolkit

Conductor supports the most popular MCP-enabled AI clients out of the box. One config, every tool.

Claude

Claude

Desktop & Claude Code

Cursor

Cursor

AI-powered code editor

VS Code

VS Code

GitHub Copilot MCP

Windsurf

Windsurf

Codeium's AI IDE

Zed

Zed

High-performance editor

JetBrains

JetBrains

IntelliJ-based IDEs

Codex CLI

Codex CLI

OpenAI's CLI agent

Antigravity

Antigravity

AI development platform

More coming: ChatGPT Desktop, Continue, Aider, Amazon Q

Features

Everything you need to manage MCP

Built by developers who were tired of the MCP config chaos.

Single Source of Truth

Conductor stores all your MCP server configurations in one unified database. Edit once, and every connected client gets the update. No more hunting through scattered JSON files across your filesystem.

  • Unified server registry
  • Per-server enable/disable
  • Visual config editor
  • JSON import/export

Auth Once, Use Everywhere

Configure API keys and authentication tokens once in Conductor. They're stored in your OS keychain and automatically injected into every client's config at sync time. Update a key in one place, and it propagates everywhere.

  • OS keychain storage
  • Auto-injection at sync
  • OAuth flow support
  • Environment variable support

GITHUB_TOKENKeychain

••••••••••••••••

OPENAI_API_KEYKeychain

••••••••••••••••

BRAVE_API_KEYKeychain

••••••••••••••••

Keychain

Auto-inject

All Clients

Server Registry

Browse and install from 7,300+ MCP servers on the Smithery Registry, right from Conductor. Search by name, category, or use case — then install with one click.

  • 7,300+ servers to browse
  • Search and filter
  • One-click install
  • Auto-configure on add

Search 7,300+ servers...

postgresPostgreSQL queries

filesystemLocal file access

MCP Stacks

Bundle your MCP servers into shareable Stacks. Export as JSON or share via link. Import a stack to instantly set up a curated set of servers.

  • Shareable server bundles
  • Import via JSON or URL
  • Share links
  • Secrets auto-stripped on export

Web Dev Stack

filesystemgithub-mcppostgres-mcp

Data Science Stack

jupyter-mcppandas-mcpviz-server

Auto-Sync + Activity Log

Conductor auto-syncs your config to all clients whenever you make a change. A detailed activity log tracks every sync, import, and server change so you always know what happened.

  • Real-time file watching
  • Auto-sync on config changes
  • Detailed activity log
  • Automatic config backups

Added brave-search server

15 min ago

Get Started

Ready to simplify your MCP setup?

Download Conductor and never copy-paste a config again.

Install with one command:

curl -fsSL https://conductor-mcp.vercel.app/install.sh | sh

Open Terminal and paste this command. It auto-detects your chip (Apple Silicon / Intel), downloads the latest version, installs to /Applications, and removes the macOS quarantine flag so the app opens without any “damaged” errors.

Or download the DMG manually:

macOS 10.15+ · Free & open source

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