Claude Desktop | PrivateGPT

This page was last updated and tested on 2026-06-03. The setup is stable, but Claude Desktop updates can change UI labels or configuration keys without notice — if something stops working, check this page for an updated guide.

Claude Desktop ships with a Cowork agent harness — skills, plugins, MCP servers, and multi-agent coordination — that can be pointed at any Anthropic-compatible endpoint, including your private-gpt server. This lets you run the full Cowork experience against your self-hosted models without routing data through Anthropic’s first-party infrastructure.

For the official Anthropic documentation on third-party inference, see Claude Desktop third-party inference.

Compatibility

Tested against private-gpt on 2026-05-27.

Feature	Status	Notes
Chat & streaming	✅
Web search	✅
File tools (read, write, edit)	✅
Skills	✅
Plugins	✅
MCP servers	✅
Multi-agent (sub-agents)	✅
Native connectors (Gmail, Notion, Slack, …)	❌	Not available on third-party gateways — use MCP servers
Code tab config parity	⚠️	Some keys may not propagate to Code-tab sessions

Prerequisites

Claude Desktop installed and up to date
Developer mode enabled: Help → Troubleshooting → Enable Developer Mode
private-gpt server running (see serve)

The Configure Third-Party Inference option lives under Menu → Developer. If it is missing, update Claude Desktop and restart with developer mode enabled. Users on corporate or Team plans may not see it — it may be plan-gated.

Setup

Open the third-party inference panel

In Claude Desktop: Menu → Developer → Configure Third-Party Inference

Set the gateway values

Field	Value
Connection	`Gateway`
Gateway base URL	`http://localhost:<port>/<root_path>`
Gateway API key	`server.auth.secret` (any value if auth is disabled)
Gateway auth scheme	`Bearer`

private-gpt exposes an Anthropic-compatible API, so no adapter or proxy is needed. If root_path is empty, omit the trailing path:

http://localhost:8080

Configure your model

Open the model configuration panel and add a custom model entry with the following values:

Field	Value
Model Discoverability	Disabled
Model ID	`claude-local` (must start with `claude-`)
Display Name	`PrivateGPT` (or any label you prefer)

Claude Desktop requires the Model ID to follow the claude-* naming convention (e.g. claude-local, claude-private). Using an ID that does not start with claude- will cause the model to be rejected or ignored.

Do not include gpt anywhere in the Model ID — Claude Desktop bans that string and will reject the model entry.

Because Claude Desktop requires a claude-* Model ID, the value you enter (e.g. claude-local) will not match any model name in your settings.yaml — PrivateGPT will automatically fall back to the default model configured on the server.

For fine-grained control over context window, tokenizer, tool support, and sampling parameters, see Advanced Model Configuration.

Apply and relaunch

Click Apply locally → Relaunch now.

After relaunch, log out of your Anthropic account and choose Continue with Gateway.