Supercharge Claude: A Developer's Guide to Integrating External Tools with MCP

Large language models like Anthropic's Claude are limited by their static knowledge and inability to interact with live services. The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that acts as a universal adapter, allowing LLMs to securely communicate with external tools and data. This developer guide demonstrates how to connect Claude to external tools using two methods: a no-code approach via the Claude web UI and a programmatic integration using Python. The guide provides code examples for building a tool-use loop, connecting to self-hosted or managed MCP servers, and enabling complex, multi-step workflows.