MCP & Connections

What Is MCP?

So far, Claude Code has been working with files and commands on your computer. But what about the rest of your digital life — your emails, your Slack messages, your Google Docs, your design files in Figma?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the bridge that connects Claude to all of these tools. Think of it like a universal power adapter: just as one adapter lets you plug any device into any outlet around the world, MCP lets Claude plug into any service.

Without MCP, Claude is limited to what’s on your computer. With MCP, Claude can read your Slack messages, search your Google Drive, pull data from your database, view your Figma designs, and update your Notion pages — all from the same conversation.

Adding Your First Connection

Connecting a new tool takes one command. Here’s how you’d add a Slack connection:

That’s it. After running this command, Claude can search your Slack channels, read messages, and even send messages on your behalf (with your permission, of course).

The general pattern is always the same:

claude mcp add <service-name>

Some services open a browser window for you to log in and approve the connection. Others ask for an API key. Claude walks you through it either way.

Pro Tip

You can see all your active connections by typing /connections inside Claude Code. It shows which services are connected, when they were added, and what permissions they have.

Popular Connections

Here are the most useful connections and what they let Claude do:

Slack — Read channels, search messages, send messages, create canvases. Ask Claude to “summarize what happened in #engineering today” or “send a message to #general.”

Google Drive — Search files, read documents and spreadsheets, create new docs. Ask Claude to “find the Q4 budget spreadsheet and summarize the key numbers.”

Notion — Read pages, create new pages, update databases, search your workspace. Ask Claude to “add a new row to my project tracker in Notion.”

Figma — View designs, read component details, export screenshots. Ask Claude to “show me the latest version of the homepage design.”

Databases — Connect to PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, and other databases. Ask Claude to “show me all customers who signed up this month.”

Search Slack for any messages about the product launch in the last 7 days and give me a summary of the key decisions that were made.

Find the document called 'Q1 Marketing Plan' in my Google Drive, read it, and create a bullet-point summary of the top 5 action items.

Connect to our database and show me the 10 most recent customer signups, including their name, email, and signup date. Format it as a clean table.

The Plugin Marketplace

Beyond manual connections, Claude Code has a growing marketplace of pre-built plugins. These are MCP servers that someone else has already built and packaged for easy installation.

You can browse and install them with the /plugin command:

Installing a plugin is as simple as selecting it from the list. It handles the setup, authentication, and configuration for you.

Pro Tip

Plugins are just MCP servers under the hood. If a plugin doesn’t exist for your tool, you (or someone you hire) can build one. The MCP standard is open — anyone can create a connector.

Real-World Use Cases

Here’s where MCP connections get truly powerful — combining multiple tools in a single prompt:

Read the latest messages in the #bugs Slack channel, find any that mention login issues, check our database for recent login failures, and create a summary in a new Notion page under 'Bug Reports'.

That single prompt uses three connections — Slack, a database, and Notion — all working together. Claude reads from one tool, analyzes the data, and writes to another. This is the kind of workflow that used to require a developer building custom integrations.

Look at the Figma design for the 'Pricing Page' component. Then build it as a React component with Tailwind CSS, matching the colors, spacing, and typography exactly.

Multimodal Memory

Here’s a powerful concept: when you combine MCP connections with Claude’s memory system (CLAUDE.md from Module 5), Claude builds a multimodal memory — it remembers context from across all your tools.

For example, if Claude knows from your CLAUDE.md that you’re working on a product launch, and it’s connected to Slack, Google Drive, and your project tracker, it can:

• Pull the latest Slack conversations about the launch
• Reference the launch plan document in Drive
• Check off completed tasks in your tracker
• All without you specifying where each piece of information lives

Claude learns where your information lives and retrieves it automatically.

Managing Connections

You can manage your MCP connections at any time:

You can add, remove, and list connections whenever you want. Removing a connection immediately revokes Claude’s access to that service.

Pro Tip

If a connection stops working (for example, after a password change), just remove it and re-add it. Claude will walk you through re-authenticating.

Try It Yourself