AI that only sees what you paste into the chat doesn’t get you far. It becomes genuinely useful in a business when it can read your calendar, find the document in Drive and create the task in your project tool. That’s what MCP makes possible.

What is MCP?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard for connecting AI applications to other systems. Its creators compare it to USB-C: one port that fits everywhere, instead of a custom cable for every device. A system that offers an MCP server can connect to Claude and to any other app that supports the standard.

In Claude these are called connectors. The directory has hundreds of ready-made connectors, such as Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, Microsoft 365, Slack, Notion, Asana, monday.com and HubSpot.

How do you connect?

  1. Open Customize > Connectors in Claude.
  2. Click +, find the system and choose Connect.
  3. Sign in to the system and approve access.
  4. In each chat, choose which connectors are active under + > Connectors.

Claude gets the same permissions you have in the system, no more and no less. If you can’t see the payroll file, neither can Claude.

What to watch out for

  • Start with reading. Let Claude read and search first, and add write access once you trust the results.
  • Set approvals. On Team and Enterprise an admin can set each action to Always allow, Needs approval or Blocked. Put anything that sends, pays or deletes on Needs approval.
  • Not too many at once. Only turn on the connectors the task needs. You get better answers and less risk.

If your system isn’t in the directory, you can add your own MCP server by URL (a custom connector), or have one built.

What’s new?

This summer brought the fifth version of the MCP standard, 2026-07-28. It simplifies connections and improves sign-in so it fits the identity systems businesses already use, such as Entra and Okta. An admin can also authorise a connector once for the whole company. For users, that means more systems that connect and fewer sign-in problems.

References