Connecting MCP to Claude Code

2026-11-01, updated 2026-11-02. Claude put this together from the repositories and work logs.

With MCP connected, Claude Code can use outside tools like issue trackers, monitoring, databases and design tools directly. Instead of working from pasted material, it goes to the tool itself. The commands below are the ones I actually used early in this project.

Four tools connected to Claude Code over MCP: shadcn, playwright, chrome-devtools and context7. — The four MCP tools connected in this project.

Connect commands

claude mcp add shadcn -- npx -y shadcn@latest mcp
claude mcp add playwright -- npx -y @playwright/mcp@latest
claude mcp add chrome-devtools -- npx -y chrome-devtools-mcp@latest
claude mcp add context7 -- npx -y @upstash/context7-mcp@latest
claude mcp list

-- separates Claude's options from the server's run command. Servers that run locally use this format.

Remote servers

claude mcp add --transport http <name> <url>
claude mcp add --transport http <name> <url> --header "Authorization: Bearer <token>"

SSE is deprecated. You can read that as: use HTTP for new connections.

Management commands

Command	What it does
claude mcp list	List connections
claude mcp get <name>	Server details
claude mcp remove <name>	Remove a server
/mcp	Check status inside a session

Removing a remote server only deletes the stored OAuth token. It does not revoke access. To revoke it, run claude mcp logout <name> first.

Results in this project

Name	Result	Used for
shadcn	Connected	Browsing UI components
playwright	Connected	Opening and capturing screens
chrome-devtools	Connected	Checking performance and console
context7	Connected	Finding current docs
21st	Not connected	It needed an API key

What the logs show

Even when claude mcp list showed a server as connected, its tools did not appear right away in a session that was already open.
The default scope of claude mcp add was the current project. Other projects were not affected.
Before connecting, I checked whether it was free and whether it needed a key.

Check before connecting

The official docs say to check first that a server is trustworthy. Servers that pull in outside content carry a prompt injection risk. Pass API keys with --env, and do not commit them to the repository.

You can also connect Blender (I did not try this in this project)

This is the command given in the repository's instructions. You need uv and the Blender add-on installed first.

claude mcp add blender uvx mcp-for-blender

The instructions say the AI can run arbitrary Python inside Blender and the add-on server has no authentication. It is safer to turn it on only when you use it and to save your work file first.