MCP Servers

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that gives Claude access to external tools — APIs, databases, web services. Each MCP server exposes a set of tools that Claude can then call. Many already come bundled in plugins; when there's no plugin, you add the standalone server with claude mcp add.

#Transports

An MCP server connects over one of these transports — the transport defines where the server runs:

• stdio — the server runs locally as a process (via npx, python, a binary). It's the default when the command includes --.
• HTTP — the server is remote, accessed by URL. The recommended transport for hosted services.
• SSE — an older remote variant, now deprecated in favor of HTTP.