Claude Desktop: Plan a Week of Posts by Chatting

Every MCP tutorial I had written before this one assumed a terminal. This one does not. If you use Claude Desktop as a chat app and want it to help plan social posts, the setup is one JSON block and a restart.

Who this is for

Claude Code and Codex are developer-first tools. Claude Desktop is a better fit when you want to plan content in conversation and keep the actual publishing queue visible in PostSider.

The underlying PostSider MCP server is the same. What changes is the client configuration and the way you interact with it.

Add the PostSider MCP server to Claude Desktop

Open Claude Desktop, go to Settings, then Developer, and choose Edit Config. That opens claude_desktop_config.json.

The standard config locations are:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

On recent Windows MSIX installs there have been reports of config-path virtualization problems, so if the server does not appear after a correct edit, use Claude Desktop’s own Edit Config entry first and check the Developer screen for MCP status rather than assuming the file path is the problem.

Add the PostSider server under mcpServers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "postsider": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@postsider/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "POSTSIDER_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Generate the API key in PostSider under Settings > Developers > Public API. Treat it like a password and do not paste it into public examples, screenshots or source control.

Save the file, fully quit Claude Desktop, and reopen it. If the server loaded correctly, PostSider tools should be available to the client.

Test with a read-only request first

Before asking Claude to create anything, ask:

What social channels do I have connected in PostSider?

If it returns your real connected accounts, the local MCP process is running and the API key is working.

Only then move on to a write action.

Example planning conversation

The exchange below is an illustrative example of the workflow, not a transcript of one specific session:

You: Plan three posts for LinkedIn and X this week. Use open slots and save everything as drafts. Do not publish anything.

Claude: I found open slots, prepared the copy and saved the posts as drafts in PostSider.

The important part is not the wording. It is the sequence: inspect channels, find usable slots, create drafts, then review those drafts in the calendar.

Drafts belong in the calendar before they belong on the internet

A chat interface makes it easy to approve a plan mentally because the answer looks polished. That is exactly why a draft-first workflow matters.

Open the PostSider calendar after the planning session and read every draft. Edit, approve or delete them there. The agent can do the repetitive planning and copy work without becoming a separate publishing system that bypasses your normal review process.

Where chat works well, and where it does not

Claude Desktop is good at text-heavy tasks: planning a cadence, rewriting copy, adapting one idea to several networks, and choosing among known channels and open slots.

Media is different. If the workflow already has an image URL, an MCP tool can pass it through. But browsing a camera roll, choosing between similar photos, cropping for a platform and judging whether an image fits the rest of a feed are visual review tasks. Keep those in the PostSider app.

Get it running

Add the MCP block, restart Claude Desktop and ask it to list your connected PostSider channels. Once that works, ask it to create one draft before trying a full week.

If you prefer a developer-first client, the Claude Code walkthrough covers the terminal setup. The general MCP tutorial explains the broader agent workflow.