MCP servers for Claude Code

How to add an MCP server to Claude Code

1. Local server: run claude mcp add <name> -- <command> [args]. Everything after -- is the command that starts the server.
2. Hosted server: run claude mcp add --transport http <name> <url>. Claude Code handles OAuth when the server asks for it.
3. Add --scope project to write the entry to .mcp.json and share it through the repo, or --scope user to have it in every project.
4. Check with claude mcp list. Inside a session, /mcp shows each server's status and lets you authenticate remote ones.

# local, over stdio
claude mcp add filesystem -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem /Users/you/projects

# hosted, over streamable HTTP
claude mcp add --transport http example https://example.com/mcp

The example uses the reference filesystem server. Every listing on mcp.site shows its own command, args and environment variables, usually with a ready-made snippet for Claude Code.

A project-scoped .mcp.json uses the same "mcpServers" shape as Claude Desktop and Cursor, so a snippet written for one of them drops straight in.

Config formats change between releases. If a step looks different in your version, the Anthropic documentation ↗ is the source of truth.