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Anaconda MCP is a beta feature of Anaconda Desktop. Features and functionality might change during the beta period.
Anaconda MCP is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that gives AI coding assistants full awareness of your conda environments, packages, and channel configurations. Once connected, you can create environments, install packages, and manage dependencies using natural language directly from your AI coding assistant. Anaconda MCP currently supports the following assistants: Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Opencode, and Windsurf.

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Prerequisites

You must have at least one supported AI coding assistant installed on your machine.

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Connecting via Anaconda Desktop

1

Enable the MCP beta feature

Follow the steps in Enabling beta features to enable Anaconda MCP. MCP now appears under BETA in the left-hand navigation.
2

Configure your AI coding assistant

  1. Select MCP from the left-hand navigation.
  2. Toggle on the AI coding assistant you want to configure.
    Anaconda MCP setup page
Anaconda Desktop installs the anaconda-mcp package into a new environment called anaconda-mcp and configures the selected assistant automatically. A confirmation message appears when setup is complete.
3

Restart your AI coding assistant

Quit and restart your AI coding assistant for the changes to take effect.
4

Verify the connection

Ask your assistant something like “List my conda environments” to verify that Anaconda MCP is connected and responding.Alternatively, you can verify the MCP server is running by checking the settings in your AI coding assistant’s configuration. For example, in Claude Desktop, navigate to Settings > Developer > Local MCP Servers and look for anaconda-mcp.
You can add “In conda” or “Using the conda server” to your prompts to ensure requests are routed to the Anaconda MCP server.

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Capabilities

Anaconda MCP exposes the following conda environment and package management capabilities: