mcp-integration

name	mcp-integration
description	Use MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers to give Claude Code access to external tools, APIs, databases, and services. Trigger on /mcp-integration, or when setting up external tool connections.
user-invocable	true
allowed-tools	Read, Grep, Glob, Bash, Edit

MCP Integration

MCP (Model Context Protocol) lets Claude Code connect to external tools — databases, APIs, file systems, browsers, and custom services.

Configuration

MCP servers are configured in .mcp.json at the project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-db": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["path/to/mcp-server.js"],
      "env": {
        "DB_URL": "${DB_URL}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or in .claude/settings.json under mcpServers key.

Common MCP Use Cases

Purpose	Example
Database queries	Connect to PostgreSQL, SQLite, MySQL
API integration	GitHub, JIRA, Asana, Slack, Notion
File system	Advanced file operations, search
Browser automation	Web scraping, testing
Custom tools	Internal company APIs, CLI wrappers

Security

• MCP servers have access to your environment — vet them before installing.
• Use .env or environment variables for credentials, never hardcode.
• Restrict MCP server permissions to the minimum needed.
• Prefer stdio-based MCP servers over network-based for local development.

Skill Integration

MCP tools can be called from skills. Reference them in allowed-tools:

---
name: my-skill
allowed-tools: [
  "Read", "Grep", "Glob", "Bash",
  "mcp__my-server__my-tool"
]
---

Rules

• Add MCP servers one at a time and test after each.
• Document each MCP server's purpose and required env vars.
• Do not add MCP servers that duplicate built-in capabilities.
• Keep .mcp.json in version control (without secrets).

Experience Log

This skill learns from experience. Mechanism:

• Read .claude/experience/mcp-integration.md at skill start to benefit from past lessons.

• Write to .claude/experience/mcp-integration.md after use if you learned something new.

• Format: YYYY-MM-DD: <lesson> — one line per entry.

• Evolve: If the same issue repeats 3+ times, update this SKILL.md itself.

This skill improves over time. After each use, append lessons learned.

Record format: YYYY-MM-DD: <lesson> Read this at skill start to apply past lessons.