What MCP is. MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is an open standard that connects Claude Code to outside tools, data, and APIs. Once you connect a tool, Claude can read from it and act on it directly. The signal that you want one: you keep copying data out of some other app and pasting it into Claude.
Plain example. Connect the GitHub server and Claude can read a pull request and comment on it. Connect a database server and it can answer "how many orders shipped last week" by querying it, instead of you exporting a spreadsheet.
Browse reviewed connectors in the Anthropic Directory, then add any of them.
Open the Anthropic Directory →
Popular beginner-friendly ones include Notion, GitHub, Sentry, and database connectors. Each has a name and either a URL (for cloud tools) or a small command (for local ones).
A server you connect can feed content into Claude, which carries a prompt-injection risk. Stick to official or well-reviewed servers, and do not connect something you do not recognize.
Cloud servers are added with claude mcp add --transport http, giving the server a name and a URL. A great one to start with needs no account and no API key: DeepWiki, a free server that can read and answer questions about any public GitHub repository.
That is the whole setup. Now ask Claude about any repo and it reads the docs through the server for you:
DeepWiki is open to everyone. Many other cloud servers (GitHub, Slack, your database) ask you to log in or paste a token, since they touch your private data. For those, run /mcp inside Claude Code after adding the server and follow the browser sign-in. Your tokens are stored securely.
Some servers run as a small program on your machine. These use -- to separate the name from the command. A favorite is the Playwright server, which lets Claude drive a real web browser. It needs Node.js 18 or later (check with node --version):
The part after -- is the command that starts the server. Now Claude can open and click around a browser for you. Try it:
A real browser window opens and you watch Claude work. Local servers like this are great for tools that need direct access to your machine.
A handful of commands cover the day to day:
And inside a Claude Code session, check connection status, sign in, or reconnect:
Once a server is connected, you do not call it specially. Just ask in plain language: "Ask DeepWiki how routing works in the vercel/next.js repo" or "Use Playwright to open my localhost site and check the homepage." Claude picks the right tool.
When you add a server, you can choose where it is available with --scope.
Available only to you, only in the current project. Good for personal or experimental connections.
Saved to a .mcp.json file in the project so your whole team gets the same tools when they pull the repo. Add it with --scope project.
Available to you across every project on your machine. Add it with --scope user. Good for tools you use everywhere.
Made by AI Service Engine · official MCP docs · browse connectors