Skip to main content
On the MDM delivery model, the profile you deploy carries your organization’s full configuration, and every device the profile targets gets the same settings. This page covers the workflow end to end: build the configuration in the app, export it, open the firewall, and deploy the profile and installer to your fleet. Before you start, install Claude Desktop on an admin workstation; see Installation and setup. If you deliver configuration from a bootstrap server instead, follow that page; your profile then carries only the bootstrap keys, but it is exported and deployed the same way described here. Roll out in this order; the numbered sections on this page cover each step in detail.
1

Build a configuration in the app

An admin builds and tests a working configuration in the in-app configuration window on their own device.
2

Export the profile

Export the validated configuration in the format your MDM expects.
3

Allow required network egress

Open the hostnames your configuration requires on your perimeter firewall; the configuration window lists them for the exact settings you chose.
4

Deploy the configuration, then the app

Distribute the profile through your MDM, then push the installer. Deploying the configuration first means users open Claude for the first time and land directly in the third-party deployment, with no opportunity to sign in to claude.ai by mistake.

​
1. Build a configuration in the app

Launch Claude Desktop. Do not sign in or create an Anthropic account; stay on the login screen. From the macOS menu bar (or on Windows, the application menu ☰ in the top-left of the login screen), go to Help → Troubleshooting → Enable Developer Mode, then Developer → Configure Third-Party Inference… to open the configuration window. The window is organized into sections in the left sidebar. Work through them in order; each maps to a group of configuration keys, and the window validates values as you enter them.
When a managed (MDM-delivered) configuration is already present on the device, the configuration window opens read-only: it shows what the admin deployed, marks the configuration as organization-managed, and directs users to their IT administrator. To author a new configuration, use a device without a managed profile, or temporarily remove the profile. Profiles that set only the two update keys leave the window editable.

​
2. Export the profile

Once your configuration tests successfully, click Export and choose a format: The two actions in the configuration window do different things:
  • Apply locally writes the selected configuration to your own machine’s Claude settings and relaunches the app, so you can test it end to end before deploying it.
  • Export writes a deployment file in the format you choose and leaves your local settings untouched.

​
Creating profiles for multiple user groups

Many organizations deploy distinct configurations to different populations: for example, a permissive profile for an engineering pilot group and a restricted profile for the broader rollout, or per-region profiles that point at different inference endpoints. The configuration window can hold multiple named configurations. Use the picker in the top-right of the window:
  • New configuration creates an empty configuration.
  • Duplicate copies the current configuration as a starting point for a variant.
  • Rename and Delete manage the list.
  • Reveal in Finder opens the on-disk location where saved configurations are stored.
Selecting a configuration in the picker loads it for editing; the applied badge marks the one currently active on your machine. Apply locally and Export each act on whichever configuration is selected, so you can test each one locally and export them independently. In your MDM, scope each exported profile to the corresponding device or user group. Targeting is handled by your MDM’s assignment rules; the configuration name is for your authoring workflow and is not part of the deployed profile.
On Windows, check which registry hive your assignment rules write to. If your assignment rules deliver a profile in user context, it lands in user policy (HKCU), and the app ignores user policy entirely when machine policy is present; see Deploy the configuration. To vary configuration per user group on Windows, deliver every profile through user policy and keep HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Claude empty, or serve per-user configuration from a bootstrap server.

​
3. Allow required network egress

The hosts the app needs to reach depend on the configuration you built: your inference provider’s endpoint is always required, and each telemetry, update, and service setting you leave enabled adds its own hosts. The configuration window shows the exact allowlist for your settings and can export it as a text file for your network team.
downloads.claude.ai is required to run the app regardless of your configuration: it serves the VM workspace bundle and the latest Claude Code binary, fetched at session start. Without it, Cowork sessions cannot start. The offline installer variant builds both components into the installer package and does not need this host.
Open these hosts on your perimeter firewall before rolling out to devices. See Telemetry and egress for the full list of hosts grouped by the setting that controls each one, and for the distinction between the perimeter firewall and the in-app sandbox allowlist.

​
4. Deploy the configuration

Push the exported configuration through your MDM. The app reads from these locations:
A .mobileconfig profile delivered by MDM lands in the Managed Preferences locations automatically. Both managed paths are read; where a key appears in both, the per-user value wins.
When a managed source sets any key other than the two update keys, the managed configuration owns the device: it takes effect, the in-app configuration window becomes read-only, and locally authored values in configLibrary/ are ignored.

​
Update keys and managed precedence

The update keys disableAutoUpdates and autoUpdaterEnforcementHours are treated specially, so you can set an update policy from MDM without managing the whole configuration. When a managed source sets only these keys (one or both), the device keeps its locally authored configuration and the configuration window stays editable. The update keys themselves are still enforced as a pair: both are resolved from the managed source alone, so a locally set value for either key is ignored even if the profile only sets the other one. If the managed profile sets any other recognized key, the normal rule above applies and the whole configuration is managed.

​
5. Distribute the app

Deploy the Claude Desktop installer to enrolled devices using your standard software-distribution mechanism. On launch, the app reads the managed configuration, detects the configured inference provider and credentials, and the sign-in screen offers users the option to start in Claude Desktop on 3P.

​
6. Deploy organization plugins (optional)

If you’re distributing organization plugins, push the plugin bundles to the org-plugins directory on each device alongside the configuration profile. Plugins are picked up at the next app launch.

​
Next steps

After deployment, confirm devices picked up the configuration with the checks in Verifying the deployment.