MCP at a Glance
- Created by Anthropic, released as open source in 2024
- A universal standard for AI-to-tool connections
- Replaces hundreds of custom integrations with one protocol
- Works with Claude, and increasingly other AI systems
- Rapidly becoming the industry standard for agentic AI
The Problem MCP Solves
Before MCP, connecting an AI assistant to external tools was messy. Every tool needed a custom integration. If you wanted Claude to access your Google Drive, someone had to build a specific Claude-to-Google Drive connector. If you then wanted it to access Notion, another custom connector. And again for GitHub, Slack, and every other service.
This created an impossible maintenance burden and locked AI capabilities to whatever integrations had been specifically built. MCP solves this with a single, open standard.
The USB-C analogy: Before USB-C, every device had a different charging port. MCP is to AI tools what USB-C is to device charging — one standard connector that works everywhere.
How MCP Works
MCP has three components that work together:
MCP Hosts: The AI application the user interacts with — Claude Desktop, an IDE like Cursor, or a custom application. The host manages connections to MCP servers.
MCP Clients: The component inside the host that speaks the MCP protocol and connects to servers.
MCP Servers: Lightweight programs that expose specific capabilities to AI models. A GitHub MCP server gives the AI access to repositories. A filesystem MCP server gives access to local files. A database MCP server gives access to query a database.
When you ask Claude to "check my latest GitHub pull requests," Claude's MCP client connects to the GitHub MCP server, which fetches the data and returns it to Claude in a standardised format.
What MCP Servers Are Available in 2026
| Category | Available MCP Servers |
|---|---|
| File & Storage | Local filesystem, Google Drive, Dropbox, S3, OneDrive |
| Code & Development | GitHub, GitLab, code execution (Python, JS), terminal |
| Productivity | Google Calendar, Gmail, Notion, Obsidian, Todoist |
| Communication | Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, email (SMTP/IMAP) |
| Data & Databases | PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, MongoDB, Airtable |
| Web | Browser control, web search, URL fetching, screenshots |
| Business | Salesforce, HubSpot, Stripe, Shopify, QuickBooks |
Setting Up MCP with Claude Desktop
- Install Claude Desktop — Download from anthropic.com/claude. This is the desktop application with MCP support built in.
- Open MCP settings — In Claude Desktop, go to Settings → Developer. You'll see a configuration file path.
- Add an MCP server — Edit the configuration file to add a server. For the filesystem server:
{"mcpServers":{"filesystem":{"command":"npx","args":["-y","@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem","/path/to/your/files"]}}} - Restart Claude Desktop — The server starts automatically. You'll see a hammer icon confirming tools are connected.
- Test it — Ask Claude: "List the files in my documents folder" or "Summarise the content of [filename]." Claude now has direct access.
Why MCP Matters for the Future of AI
MCP represents a structural shift in how AI integrates with existing software. Previously, AI tools sat alongside your workflow — you'd take information out, put it into the AI, take the AI's output, and put it back. With MCP, AI sits inside your workflow, with direct access to the tools and data it needs.
The compounding effect: as more services build MCP servers, the capability of AI assistants grows without the AI itself needing to change. Claude connected to 50 MCP servers is a fundamentally different tool than Claude without MCP — even though the underlying model is identical.
Anthropic's decision to open-source MCP means it's being adopted beyond Claude — other AI systems are implementing MCP compatibility, creating the ecosystem network effects that turn a good idea into an industry standard.