Claude Connectors (Optional) for DAL Developers

This guide shows how to make DAL agents easy to access from Claude via MCP/connector tooling.

Goals

• Keep DAL's default model/tooling behavior unchanged (no forced switch).
• Give developers a fast, copy-paste path to expose DAL as an optional connector.
• Reuse DAL's existing HTTP-first contract and MCP bridge.

Mental model

• Your DAL agent remains an HTTP app (dal agent serve or dal serve).
• MCP/connector is an optional adapter that forwards tool calls to the same DAL HTTP endpoints.
• Claude integration is therefore additive, not a replacement for COO or existing DAL flows.

See also:

• docs/IDE_AND_AGENT_INTEGRATION.md
• docs/guides/AGENT_SETUP_AND_USAGE.md#13-mcp-ide-bridge

1) Start a DAL agent HTTP server

Run from your DAL project:

dal agent serve --port 4040

Or run your custom DAL app:

dal serve app.dal --port 4040

2) Install MCP bridge dependencies (one-time)

From the repository checkout:

cd COO/mcp
# or, from dist_agent_lang/: cd ../COO/mcp
npm install

3) Run the DAL MCP bridge

From a second terminal:

export DAL_AGENT_HTTP_BASE="http://127.0.0.1:4040"
dal mcp-bridge

Notes:

• Default transport is stdio.
• DAL_MCP_TRANSPORT=http-stream is available for environments that support streamable HTTP MCP transport.

4) Register DAL bridge in your Claude connector/MCP surface

In any Claude environment that supports MCP connectors/servers, add a server entry that runs:

• Command: node
• Args: <path-to>/COO/mcp/src/server.js (or <path-to>/../COO/mcp/src/server.js from dist_agent_lang)
• Working directory: <path-to>/COO/mcp (or <path-to>/../COO/mcp)
• Environment: DAL_AGENT_HTTP_BASE=http://127.0.0.1:4040

The MCP server then exposes DAL tool endpoints backed by your running DAL agent HTTP server.

5) Team-friendly developer experience (recommended)

For language users, provide this as an optional profile:

• Keep existing default setup as-is.
• Add a short "Enable Claude connector" section in onboarding docs.
• Include a local script to run both processes for developers.

Example helper script:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

export DAL_AGENT_HTTP_BASE="${DAL_AGENT_HTTP_BASE:-http://127.0.0.1:4040}"

echo "[1/2] Starting DAL agent server on :4040"
dal agent serve --port 4040

Run MCP bridge in another terminal:

export DAL_AGENT_HTTP_BASE="${DAL_AGENT_HTTP_BASE:-http://127.0.0.1:4040}"
dal mcp-bridge

Optional: use Claude as model provider without MCP

If a developer only wants Claude for generation (not connector tools), DAL already supports Anthropic directly:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
export ANTHROPIC_MODEL="claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022"

This is independent from MCP connector setup.

Troubleshooting quick checks

• dal mcp-bridge says missing node_modules:
  • Run cd COO/mcp && npm install (or cd ../COO/mcp && npm install from dist_agent_lang).
• MCP server starts but tool calls fail:
  • Verify DAL_AGENT_HTTP_BASE points to your active DAL HTTP server.
• Wrong script path:
  • Set DAL_MCP_BRIDGE_SCRIPT (or DAL_COO_MCP_SCRIPT) explicitly.

Why this approach works for COO and language users

• COO keeps its current defaults and roadmap.
• Developers who prefer Claude connectors get a clear optional path.
• The same DAL HTTP API remains the source of truth, so behavior is consistent across curl, IDE, and connector clients.