Level 2: Integrator — Connect Tools with MCP

The next step after getting Claude to understand your project with CLAUDE.md is to let Claude actually use external tools. By configuring MCP (Model Context Protocol), Claude can read GitHub Issues directly, send Slack messages, and more.

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What Is MCP (Model Context Protocol)?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is a standard protocol that allows Claude to communicate with external tools and services. Think of it like USB-C — once the standard is established, you can connect a wide variety of tools using the same interface.

Claude Code
    ↕ MCP (common protocol)
┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│  GitHub  │  Slack  │  Notion  │  DB  │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘

Without MCP, Claude can only interact with the filesystem and execute code. By configuring MCP, it can retrieve information from and operate on external services.

Common MCP Servers

MCP Server	What it can do
GitHub	Read Issues/PRs, add comments, manage repositories
Slack	Send messages, read channels and threads
Notion	Search, create, and update pages and databases
Google Drive	Search, read, and create files
PostgreSQL	Run SQL queries, inspect schemas
Puppeteer	Browser automation, screenshots, scraping

How to Add to settings.json

MCP servers are configured in your project’s .claude/settings.json.

your-project/
├── .claude/
│   └── settings.json   ← MCP configuration file
└── CLAUDE.md

GitHub MCP Configuration Example

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "ghp_your_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Get your GitHub Personal Access Token at github.com/settings/tokens. The repo scope is required.

Adding Slack MCP

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "ghp_your_token_here"
      }
    },
    "slack": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-slack"],
      "env": {
        "SLACK_BOT_TOKEN": "xoxb-your-token-here",
        "SLACK_TEAM_ID": "T0XXXXXXXXX"
      }
    }
  }
}

After creating or updating settings.json, restart Claude Code to enable the tools.

Trying It Out (General Examples)

Here are examples of what you can do once MCP is configured.

Read a GitHub Issue and Implement from It

> Please read GitHub Issue #12 and organize the requirements.

Claude reads the issue body, comments, and labels and organizes the content.

> Based on the requirements in Issue #12, please add a GET /users/{id} endpoint to src/routes/users.py.

It then implements directly based on the issue content.

Fetch Slack Messages

> Please check the last 10 messages in the #dev-general channel.

Search Notion Documents

> Please search Notion for pages related to "API design."

The Limits of Level 2

MCP integration is powerful, but at this stage you still need to manually instruct Claude every time.

• Each time a new Issue appears, you type “read Issue #X and implement it”
• You enter the same type of request over and over

Eliminating this repetition is what Level 3 custom commands are for.

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Hands-On Tutorial

If you want to learn by doing, check out the tutorial.

Hands-on tutorial for this level →

Next Level

Level 3: Builder — Automate Repetition with Custom Skills

See the references for the external specifications and background sources used on this page.[1][2]

References

1. Anthropic, Claude Code documentation
2. Anthropic, Claude API documentation