> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs-hub.magicmealkits.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Setting up

> Install the hub from the installer, connect a Google account, and connect Claude. Start here once you have beta access.

The hub gives Claude one connector that reaches several Google accounts at
once. It runs in your own Google Cloud project, so your Google sign-ins and
your bill stay yours.

Setting it up is done from the installer. You will not run any commands.

<Note>
  The hub is in beta and access is granted per account. If the installer page
  does not show an MCP Hub section, you do not have access yet. Request it at
  [hub.magicmealkits.com](https://hub.magicmealkits.com) and we will write
  back.
</Note>

## What you will need

* A Google Cloud project with billing linked. The hub scales to zero when
  nobody is using it, but Cloud Run will not deploy into a project with no
  billing account attached.
* About twenty minutes, spread over two sittings. Most of it is waiting for
  Google.
* A Google Workspace account, if you have one. You can set the hub up
  without one, but Google's Developer Preview application requires a
  Workspace address. There is a way around that, covered in
  [Developer Preview](/developer-preview).

## Install it

Open [the installer](https://make.magicmealkits.com/v2/deploy) and sign in.
Scroll to **MCP Hub**.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Connect your Google Cloud account">
    Near the top of the page, press **Connect with Google** and pick the
    account you use for Google Cloud. The installer needs this to see your
    projects and to deploy into one.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose the project">
    In **Deploy your hub**, pick a project from the dropdown.

    A project of its own is worth it. The hub is given access to secrets
    across the whole project it lives in, so anything else you keep in that
    project is in reach. Sharing a project works, it is just a wider door
    than it needs to be.

    **Region** is set to Tokyo and only affects latency. It is worth opening
    once to change, because changing it later means stopping the hub and
    deploying again.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Run the check">
    **Run check** turns on the Google APIs the hub needs and tells you which
    ones worked. Nothing is created and nothing is billed.

    Some will usually fail, and that is expected: it is what
    [Developer Preview](/developer-preview) approval unlocks. Running the
    check now means you find out before you deploy, rather than afterwards
    when tool calls start failing.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Deploy">
    Tick the acknowledgement, then press **Deploy hub**. It takes a couple of
    minutes and reports what it is doing as it goes.

    If it stops on billing, link a billing account to the project from the
    button in the message and deploy again.

    When it finishes you get **Your hub is running**, with an admin address
    and an **admin token**. Save the token somewhere you will find it again.
    It is how you sign in, and it is not shown a second time.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Open the admin screen now and sign in with that token, before going further.
It is the quickest way to know the install actually worked.

## Give the hub its own sign-in credentials

The installer cannot do this part for you. Google has no way to create these
credentials automatically, so this is a short detour through the Google Cloud
console. The **Create your OAuth client** card on the installer walks you
through it with a button for each step.

You will do three things: set the consent screen to **External**, create a
**Web application** client, and paste the redirect address the card gives you
into that client's authorised redirect URIs. Then copy the client ID and the
client secret. The secret is only shown once.

While you are on the consent screen, publish it. A consent screen left in
**Testing** signs your accounts out roughly every seven days, and you will
have to reconnect them each time. Publishing stops that. Your own app will
still show an unverified warning when you consent, which is expected and
which only you see.

These credentials live in your project, not ours. We never hold them.

## Add a Google account

On the **Add your account** card, press the button to open the admin screen,
then choose **+ Add account**.

Paste in the client ID and secret you just copied, give the account a short
name, and pick the services you want. **Select all** turns on everything at
once. The name is what you will say to Claude when you want it to act on that
account, so keep it obvious: `personal`, `work`.

Then press **Connect** and sign in to Google.

<Warning>
  On the permissions screen, tick **Select all**. Google leaves these
  unticked, and an account connected without them looks connected but can do
  nothing. This is the single most common reason a fresh hub appears to work
  and then does not.

  Before that you will see a warning that Google has not verified the app.
  Choose Advanced, then the "go to" link. It is your own app, in your own
  project.
</Warning>

You can add as many accounts as you like, and they can be a mix of personal
and work accounts.

## Connect Claude

Copy the MCP address from the **Connect Claude** card.

In Claude, open Settings, then Connectors, then Add custom connector, and
paste it. Leave the client secret field empty. Saving opens a browser window
where you sign in and press Allow.

The same address works in ChatGPT and in anything else that speaks MCP. The
screen it goes into is named differently in each, but the address does not
change.

That address is not a password. Anyone who has it reaches your sign-in screen
and gets no further, so it is safe in a screenshot or a support thread.

To check it worked, ask for something that names an account: *"search my last
3 emails using account personal"*.

## Keeping it up to date

When a new version is out, the installer shows **New version available** with
an **Upgrade now** button. Press it. Your admin token and MCP address do not
change, so nothing needs reconnecting.

Nothing updates on its own, and nothing is forced on you. What is new in each
version is in the [release notes](/release-notes).

## Stopping the hub

**Stop hub**, at the bottom of the installer, deletes the hub from your
project. You are asked to type the service name first.

<Warning>
  Stopping is not a pause. Connected accounts stop working immediately, and
  deploying again afterwards issues a **new admin token and a new MCP
  address**, so every client you have connected will need connecting again.

  To move to a new version, use **Upgrade now** instead. That keeps
  everything.
</Warning>

## Next

* [Developer Preview](/developer-preview), which every tool call depends on
* [Troubleshooting](/troubleshooting), if something is not behaving
* [What it costs to run](/cost)