How to set up your own MCP server - a practical guide for non-engineers
Step by step guide with practical use cases for product teams. Plus, how to set up quickly with no fuss using Claude’s new MCP extensions. Get hands on experience with MCP. 🧠 Knowledge Series #78.
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In a recent talk, OpenAI’s co-founder predicted that new protocols will emerge to make it easier for AI agents to perform actions on the web. MCP is one of those - and right now it’s everywhere.
In the past few weeks, we’ve had new MCP servers from companies like Figma, ElevenLabs, Auth0 and more.
But the rapid, mass adoption of MCP hasn’t been all smooth. Just this month, it was revealed that Asana’s MCP server shipped with a major security issue which made it possible for users from different organizations to see each other’s data (including product roadmaps). A cautionary tale for companies looking to ship MCP servers quickly.
Despite these concerns, MCP is still emerging as one of the major protocols in the AI agent era. And just a few days ago, Anthropic announced a major new feature for Claude which makes it possible to install an MCP server in just one click.
In this Knowledge Series, we’ll take a step back from the hype and focus specifically on how to set up your own MCP server so that you can gain a better understanding of how they work in practice. In this step by step guide we’ll explore both the manual approach and Claude’s new approach to getting your first MCP server set up, along with practical, real-world examples of how you can use MCP servers at work.
Coming up:
What’s an MCP server again? A quick recap
What can you do with MCP servers? New MCP servers recently released from Figma, PayPal and others
A simple step by step guide to setting up your first MCP server
How to manually set up an MCP server in 4 steps using the SaaS API documentation to guide us
How to use Claude’s new MCP server extensions with Chrome and Apple Notes to see MCP in action and automate daily tasks
PS if you have a learning and development budget you can expense this to keep up to date with new AI technologies and practical ways to use them at work. Group discounts are also available.
What’s an MCP server again? A quick recap
Before we dig into the details of how to set up your MCP server, if you’re brand new to MCP servers, check out the previous Knowledge Series on that.
MCP stands for model context protocol. Protocols are designed to standardize the rules of data exchange to make it easier to connect different pieces of technology together.
In this case, MCP is an open source protocol developed by Anthropic. If you’ve worked with APIs then you’ll know that many APIs work with REST protocols. The MCP Protocol gives developers a standardised way for product teams to connect their AI assistants with external things like databases, tools, APIs and any other resource that might be useful.
What can you do once your MCP server is set up?
MCP servers can be used for all sorts of things. The utility of an MCP server all depends on the company who built it and their value proposition.
New MCP server releases and capabilities
Here’s a snapshot of some of the latest official MCP server releases that might be relevant to product teams along with practical ways to use them:
Auth0 - tell your AI assistant what you want to do (e.g., “Create a new Auth0 app with Google Sign-In”), and the tool communicates with the Auth0 MCP Server.
Figma Dev Mode - lets developers integrate designs into their codebase with richer data sets including components, variables, styles, screenshots, and even interactive code samples
Shopify storefront MCP - allows Shopify stores to build AI assistants that connect to real-time commerce data from Shopify. Customers can search, ask and buy in natural language.
PayPal MCP - allows merchants to interact with PayPal using natural language e.g. Ask your MCP client to create and send PayPal invoices to multiple customers at once.
A step by step guide to setting up and using your first MCP server
Now let’s dig into the details of how you can get your own MCP server set up.
For this, we’ll explore the two most common approaches to setting up an MCP server: 1) the manual approach and 2) the new extensions approach from Clade that makes it possible to install an MCP server in Claude in a few seconds.
If you want to follow along as we go, download Claude Desktop as this is the tool we’ll be using.