MCP guides
Guides for building and testing an MCP server, written against what real servers returned when we connected to them.
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Add a Remote MCP Server to Claude Desktop: Connectors and Fixes
How to add a remote MCP server to Claude Desktop as a custom connector, when to use mcp-remote instead, and why a server that works on your machine fails in Claude.
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MCP Tool Descriptions: Best Practices, Measured on 288 Real Tools
How to write an MCP tool description, with what 288 tools from 14 public servers actually shipped on 13 August 2026: lengths, real examples, and the patterns that tell a model which tool to pick.
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MCP Tools List: What tools/list Returns [288 Tools]
Every field a tools/list response returns, what the spec requires, and how often each one appeared across 288 tools from 14 public MCP servers on 5 August 2026.
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Test an MCP Server with curl: initialize, tools/list, Errors
The exact curl requests to test an MCP server over Streamable HTTP, for the 2025-11-25 handshake and the 2026-07-28 revision, and how to read every response.
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npx MCP Inspector: Run It, Connect It, Read the Errors
The exact npx commands for the MCP Inspector v2: web UI, CLI and TUI, stdio and Streamable HTTP, headers and OAuth, the exit codes, and the v1 habits that now fail silently.