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Claude Desktop is a different app with a different config file than Claude Code’s ~/.claude.json — it reads claude_desktop_config.json from the platform app-config dir. The binary comes first: brew install supernovae-st/tap/nika (other paths). Add the nika server under mcpServers: 
{ "mcpServers": { "nika": { "command": "nika", "args": ["mcp"] } } }
The file lives at:
PlatformPath
macOS~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Linux~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (community builds — same dir the app uses)
nika wire claude-desktop ships in the next release and writes exactly this — idempotent, every unrelated server preserved.
Each engine release also ships one-click .mcpb bundles (macOS arm64 · Linux x64, with checksums) if you prefer not to touch JSON at all.

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Verify

Restart Claude Desktop, then check its tools list — the eight nika_* tools appear (the oracle’s contract: validate, explain, schema, cost — no execution, no mutation). The config-file convention is the MCP quickstart’s own (modelcontextprotocol.io). Then prove the loop end-to-end: integrate in 10 minutes.