mcplexer

Desktop App

The MCPlexer desktop app is an Electron wrapper around the web UI and Go binary. It provides a native application experience with system tray integration and OS-level notifications for tool approvals.

Running from Source

One command builds everything and launches the desktop app:

terminal
make electron-run

This builds the Go binary, web UI, installs Electron dependencies, and starts the app in development mode with hot-reload. The Go binary runs as a child process managed by the Electron main process.

Prerequisites

You need Node.js 20+, npm, Go 1.25+, and make installed.

Features

System Tray

The desktop app runs in the system tray, keeping MCPlexer available without a visible window. The tray icon shows the current status:

  • Running — MCPlexer is active and processing tool calls
  • Stopped — the Go process is not running

Right-click the tray icon for quick actions:

  • Open the dashboard
  • Start/stop the MCPlexer process
  • View recent activity
  • Quit the application

Native Approval Notifications

When a tool call requires approval, the desktop app sends a native OS notification. This means you don't need to keep the browser or app window open — you'll get notified wherever you are.

Clicking the notification opens the approval detail view where you can approve or deny the request with full context.

Approval workflow

Native notifications are especially useful when running MCPlexer in the background. Pair this with the Tool Approvals feature for a seamless approval workflow.

Embedded Web UI

The desktop app embeds the same web UI available at http://localhost:3333. All dashboard features — metrics, audit logs, configuration pages — are available within the native window.

Building

To build the desktop app for your platform:

terminal
make electron-package-mac # macOS make electron-package-linux # Linux

Platform support

The desktop app supports macOS and Linux. Windows is not currently supported.