MCP Servers

Model Context Protocol servers extend Claude Code with additional capabilities.

Why MCP Servers?

MCP servers run locally and give Claude access to external services:

• You decide when searches happen (not Claude automatically)
• Free tiers available (Brave: 2000/month)
• Works everywhere, no geographic restrictions
• Domain filtering, content extraction, research synthesis

MCP vs Built-in WebSearch

Claude Code has a built-in WebSearch tool. MCP search servers differ in a few ways:

Recommendation: Install one search MCP server (brave-search or google-search), not both. They serve the same purpose.

Available Servers

Search

• brave-search - Web search via Brave (2000 free/month)
• google-search - Google Custom Search with research features

Documents

• pdf-reader - Read and analyze PDFs

Configuration

All MCP servers are configured in ~/.claude.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "server-name": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@package/name"],
      "env": {
        "API_KEY": "your-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Adding Custom Servers

Create a JSON file in ~/.claude/custom/mcp/:

{
  "name": "my-server",
  "description": "My custom MCP server",
  "config": {
    "type": "stdio",
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y", "@my-org/mcp-server"]
  },
  "requiresApiKey": false
}

Then use /add-custom to install, or run ./install.sh --add.