Connect from Claude Desktop

Server URLhttps://api.stockphotomcp.com/mcp

1
Add the server
Add it as a custom connector:
1. Open Settings and go to Connectors.
2. Choose "Add custom connector".
3. Enter a name (for example, "Stock photos") and the server URL below.
4. Approve access in the browser window that opens.
```
https://api.stockphotomcp.com/mcp
```
2
Sign in
Adding the connector opens a browser window to approve access with Google — Claude Desktop starts this for you as part of connecting. Approve it and you're set, with no key to copy.
3
Try it
Once connected, Claude searches stock libraries and shows watermarked previews right in the conversation, with a license link for any image you decide to use.

Headless, agents, and CI

Some clients have no browser to open, so the interactive sign-in can't run: a coding agent in a devcontainer, a CI job, a cron worker, a server-side script. An API key covers all of them. The server checks it as a bearer token on every request, with no sign-in step, so an agent connects on its own.

Mint a key in your dashboard (you'll see it once), then keep it in an environment variable named STOCK_PHOTO_MCP_KEY so the secret never lands in committed config.

For a repo an agent works in, commit a .mcp.json that reads the key from that variable. Every session in the project gets the tools with nothing to run:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "stock-photos": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.stockphotomcp.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${STOCK_PHOTO_MCP_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

On a single machine, one command does it instead. The shell fills in the key from the same variable, and Claude Code stores the server in your config:

claude mcp add --transport http stock-photos https://api.stockphotomcp.com/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer $STOCK_PHOTO_MCP_KEY"

The .mcp.json form keeps the token in the environment and out of the file, so it's safe to commit. Claude Code asks you to approve the workspace the first time it connects to a project .mcp.json. A raw Authorization: Bearer spm_your_api_key header works for any other client that lets you set one.