Claude Desktop Restart

Claude Desktop Restart

non-dirty

Lets you restart Claude Desktop on macOS directly from within Claude by typing 'restart Claude'. Useful for applying new MCP server configurations without manually closing and reopening the app.

Enables automated restarts of Claude Desktop on macOS by leveraging psutil to safely terminate and relaunch the application process.

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What it does

  • Restart Claude Desktop application
  • Check Claude Desktop running status
  • Safely terminate existing processes
  • Launch new Claude instances

Best for

Installing new MCP servers that require restartApplying configuration changes to Claude DesktopmacOS users who frequently modify MCP setups
macOS onlyWorks with simple voice command

About Claude Desktop Restart

Claude Desktop Restart is a community-built MCP server published by non-dirty that provides AI assistants with tools and capabilities via the Model Context Protocol. Automate Claude Desktop restarts on macOS with seamless process termination and relaunch using the Claude Desktop Restar It is categorized under productivity, developer tools. This server exposes 1 tool that AI clients can invoke during conversations and coding sessions.

How to install

You can install Claude Desktop Restart in your AI client of choice. Use the install panel on this page to get one-click setup for Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code, and other MCP-compatible clients. This server runs locally on your machine via the stdio transport.

License

Claude Desktop Restart is released under the MIT license. This is a permissive open-source license, meaning you can freely use, modify, and distribute the software.

Tools (1)

restart_claude

Restart the Claude application

mcp-server-restart

Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for restarting Claude Desktop for Mac

Description

Using Model Context Protocol (MCP) for Claude Desktop tool installation is a bit cumbersome. The mcp-installer makes things easier by using MCP to allow you to ask Claude to install MCP tools.

Once they are installed, you still need to restart Claude Desktop to make the changes take effect... That is where mcp-server-restart comes in!

The mcp-server-restart package provides a MCP server for restarting Claude Desktop for Mac.

Usage

Ask Claude Desktop "restart Claude" and it will restart the application.

Features

Resources

The server provides a status resource:

  • claude://status - Returns the current status of Claude Desktop
    • Returns JSON with running status, PID, and timestamp
    • MIME type: application/json

Tools

The server implements one tool:

  • restart_claude - Restarts the Claude Desktop application
    • Safely terminates existing process if running
    • Launches new instance
    • Provides progress notifications during restart

Installation for Claude Desktop

Installation requires editing your Claude Desktop config file on MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Option 1: Install both the mcp-installer and the mcp-server-restart packages:

Add the following to your Claude Desktop config file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-installer": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "@anaisbetts/mcp-installer"
      ]
    },
    "mcp-server-restart": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-server-restart"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Option 1: Install only the mcp-server-restart package:

Add the following to your Claude Desktop config file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-server-restart": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-server-restart"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Example prompts

Hey Claude, install the MCP server named mcp-server-fetch then restart Claude

Please restart Claude

Testing

Run the test suite:

pytest

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

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