First-time setup - for MSP business owners new to all this

This guide is for MSP business owners who want to use MSP Skills but haven’t used Claude Code, an MCP server, or a CLI before. No coding required, no terminal experience required, no developer experience required. About 10 minutes start to finish.

If you’re already comfortable in a terminal, the main install is faster.

What you’ll get

By the end of this guide, you’ll be able to ask Claude Desktop (the most common MSP-owner choice) questions like:

And get real answers from your live HaloPSA or Servosity data - no clicking through portals.

Before you start

You need three things:

  1. A Mac or Windows computer (Linux works too, this guide focuses on Mac/Windows).
  2. HaloPSA tenant + OAuth credentials, OR a Servosity MSP partner API token, or both. (If you don’t have one, you only install the other - they’re independent.)
  3. About 10 minutes.

Step 1 - Download Claude Desktop (5 minutes)

Open your browser and go to claude.ai. If you don’t have a Claude account, sign up - it’s free. The free Claude Desktop is enough for this; you don’t need a paid plan.

After signing in, look for a Download link on claude.ai (usually in the top-right menu, or there’s a banner). Download Claude Desktop for your OS. Install it like any other Mac/Windows app - double-click the downloaded file, drag it to Applications (Mac) or run the installer (Windows).

Open Claude Desktop. You should see a chat window. You’re ready for step 2.

Step 2 - Open the Terminal (1 minute, once)

You only need the terminal once - for the install. After that, everything happens in Claude Desktop’s chat window.

On Mac: press Cmd + Space, type Terminal, press Enter. A black window opens. You’ll type one command into it.

On Windows: press the Windows key, type PowerShell, press Enter. A blue window opens. You’ll type one command into it.

Step 3 - Run the installer (2 minutes)

In the terminal you just opened, copy and paste one of these commands depending on what you have:

If you have HaloPSA credentials:

Mac:

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/halopsa/install.sh)

Windows:

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/halopsa/install.ps1 | iex

If you have a Servosity partner token:

Mac:

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/servosity/install.sh)

Windows:

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/servosity/install.ps1 | iex

If you have both - run both commands, one at a time.

Press Enter after pasting. You’ll see some output as the installer downloads and sets up the files. When it’s done, the prompt comes back.

Step 4 - Find your credentials (3 minutes)

For HaloPSA:

Open your HaloPSA portal in a browser → Configuration → Integrations → Halo PSA API. Create an API application:

Also note your tenant name - it’s part of your HaloPSA URL. If your URL is https://acmemsp.halopsa.com, your tenant is acmemsp.

For Servosity:

Log into the Servosity partner portal → look for API or Tokens section → generate or copy your MSP partner API token. (If you can’t find it, contact Servosity support.)

Step 5 - Tell Claude Desktop about MSP Skills (3 minutes)

This is the only “technical” step. You’ll edit a small text file that tells Claude Desktop where to find MSP Skills.

In Claude Desktop:

  1. Click Claude → Settings (top menu).
  2. Click the Developer tab.
  3. Click Edit Config.

A text file opens in your default editor. Replace its contents with this (delete what’s there first, paste this in):

If you only have HaloPSA:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "halopsa": {
      "command": "halopsa-mcp",
      "env": {
        "HALOPSA_TENANT": "your-tenant-here",
        "HALOPSA_CLIENT_ID": "your-client-id-here",
        "HALOPSA_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-client-secret-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

If you only have Servosity:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "servosity": {
      "command": "servosity-mcp",
      "env": {
        "SERVOSITY_MSP_TOKEN": "your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

If you have both:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "halopsa": {
      "command": "halopsa-mcp",
      "env": {
        "HALOPSA_TENANT": "your-tenant-here",
        "HALOPSA_CLIENT_ID": "your-client-id-here",
        "HALOPSA_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-client-secret-here"
      }
    },
    "servosity": {
      "command": "servosity-mcp",
      "env": {
        "SERVOSITY_MSP_TOKEN": "your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace your-tenant-here, your-client-id-here, your-client-secret-here, and your-token-here with the actual values from Step 4. Keep the quotes.

Save the file. (Cmd+S on Mac, Ctrl+S on Windows.)

Step 6 - Restart Claude Desktop

Quit Claude Desktop completely. On Mac, Cmd+Q or Claude → Quit Claude. On Windows, right-click the Claude icon in the system tray and pick Quit.

Reopen Claude Desktop. After a few seconds, you should see a small MCP icon appear at the bottom-right of the chat input. That means it worked.

Step 7 - Ask a real question

In the Claude Desktop chat, try:

Claude will run the right command, return the data, and explain what it found. You’re done.

If something didn’t work

No MCP icon appears after restart. Your claude_desktop_config.json has a typo. Common issues:

Use a free JSON validator like jsonlint.com - paste the contents of your config file there and it’ll point at the error.

“halopsa-mcp: command not found” in Claude Desktop logs. The installer didn’t put the binary on your PATH. On Mac:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

…then quit and reopen Claude Desktop. On Windows, run PowerShell as Administrator and:

$env:Path += ";$HOME\.local\bin"
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", $env:Path, "User")

…then restart Claude Desktop.

Authentication errors when Claude asks HaloPSA / Servosity. Open a terminal and run:

If those don’t work, the env-var values in your config are wrong. Compare them to what you saved in Step 4. (doctor is safer than calling a real command first - it just tests the connection.)

You’re set. What’s next?

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