Claude Code MCP Servers - Complete Setup Guide

This guide provides comprehensive instructions for setting up various Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers with Claude Code. These tools dramatically enhance Claude Code's capabilities, allowing it to interact with your filesystem, web browsers, and more.

What are MCP Servers?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) Servers are extensions that give Claude Code new capabilities beyond just generating code. They allow Claude to interact with your computer in powerful ways:

• Reading and writing files
• Controlling web browsers
• Analyzing web pages
• Processing data with structured thinking
• Searching the web
• And much more

Table of Contents

• One-Command Installation
• Essential MCP Servers
  • Sequential Thinking
  • Filesystem Access
  • Puppeteer (Browser Automation)
  • Web Fetching
  • Brave Search
  • Firecrawl (Advanced Web Scraping)
  • Browser Tools (Chrome DevTools Integration)
• Common Command Parameters
• Verifying Installation
• Testing Each Tool
• Troubleshooting

One-Command Installation

🔥 Install All MCP Servers At Once

This command will install all supported MCP servers except for those requiring API keys:

#!/bin/bash

# One-command MCP server installation
echo "🚀 Installing Claude Code MCP Servers..."

# Install Sequential Thinking MCP
echo "📊 Setting up Sequential Thinking..."
claude mcp add sequential-thinking -s user -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking

# Install Filesystem MCP (customize directories as needed)
echo "📁 Setting up Filesystem access..."
claude mcp add filesystem -s user -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem ~/Documents ~/Desktop ~/Downloads ~/Projects

# Install Puppeteer MCP
echo "🌐 Setting up Puppeteer browser automation..."
claude mcp add puppeteer -s user -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-puppeteer

# Install Web Fetching MCP
echo "🔍 Setting up Web Fetching..."
claude mcp add fetch -s user -- npx -y @kazuph/mcp-fetch

# Verify installation
echo "✅ Verifying installation..."
claude mcp list

echo "🎉 Basic MCP servers installed successfully!"
echo "📝 For API key-based servers (Brave Search, Firecrawl) and Browser Tools, see the README for individual setup instructions."

Save this script as install-mcp-servers.sh, make it executable with chmod +x install-mcp-servers.sh, and run it.

Note: For Windows users, create a .bat file with the equivalent commands. You may need to add cmd /c before the npx commands.

Essential MCP Servers

1. Sequential Thinking

Purpose: Gives Claude a structured framework for solving complex problems with step-by-step reasoning.

claude mcp add sequential-thinking -s user -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking

Parameters:

• No specific parameters to modify
• Useful for breaking down complex problems into manageable steps

2. Filesystem Access

Purpose: Allows Claude to read, write, and manipulate files on your computer within specified directories.

claude mcp add filesystem -s user -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem ~/Documents ~/Desktop ~/Downloads ~/Projects

Parameters:

• Directory Paths: Replace ~/Documents ~/Desktop ~/Downloads ~/Projects with specific directories you want to give Claude access to
• You can add as many directories as needed, separated by spaces
• For read-only access with Docker, add ,ro after directory paths

3. Puppeteer (Browser Automation)

Purpose: Gives Claude the ability to navigate websites, take screenshots, and interact with web pages.

claude mcp add puppeteer -s user -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-puppeteer

Parameters:

• This version opens a visible browser window that Claude can control
• For headless mode (no visible window), use Docker version instead

4. Web Fetching

Purpose: Allows Claude to retrieve content from the web.

claude mcp add fetch -s user -- npx -y @kazuph/mcp-fetch

Parameters:

• No specific parameters to modify
• Handles fetching web content with automatic processing of text and images

5. Brave Search

Purpose: Enables Claude to perform web searches using the Brave Search API.

# Replace YOUR_API_KEY_HERE with your actual Brave Search API key
claude mcp add brave-search -s user -- env BRAVE_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY_HERE npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-brave-search

Parameters:

• API Key: Replace YOUR_API_KEY_HERE with your Brave Search API key
• Provides both web search and local business search capabilities
• Free tier available with 2,000 queries/month

6. Firecrawl (Advanced Web Scraping)

Purpose: Enables powerful web scraping, crawling and search capabilities.

# Replace fc-YOUR_API_KEY with your actual Firecrawl API key
claude mcp add firecrawl -s user -- env FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=fc-YOUR_API_KEY npx -y firecrawl-mcp

Parameters:

• API Key: Replace fc-YOUR_API_KEY with your actual Firecrawl API key
• Optional Environment Variables:
  • FIRECRAWL_RETRY_MAX_ATTEMPTS=5 (default: 3)
  • FIRECRAWL_RETRY_INITIAL_DELAY=2000 (in ms, default: 1000)
  • FIRECRAWL_RETRY_MAX_DELAY=30000 (in ms, default: 10000)
  • FIRECRAWL_CREDIT_WARNING_THRESHOLD=2000 (default: 1000)

7. Browser Tools (Chrome DevTools Integration)

Purpose: Gives Claude access to your browser's console logs, network traffic, and the ability to run performance/accessibility audits.

Step 1: Install the Chrome extension

Download from the releases page and install manually through Chrome's extension manager

Step 2: Start the middleware server (keep this terminal open)

npx @agentdeskai/browser-tools-server@1.2.1

Step 3: Add the MCP server to Claude Code (in a separate terminal)

claude mcp add browser-tools -s user -- npx -y @agentdeskai/browser-tools-mcp@1.2.1

Step 4: Open Chrome DevTools (F12) and find the BrowserTools tab

Parameters:

• Specify version number (e.g., @1.2.1) to ensure you're using the latest version
• In the Chrome extension, you can configure:
  • Auto-paste options
  • Token limits
  • Screenshot handling

Common Command Parameters

All MCP server commands share some common parameters:

• -s user: Sets the scope to user-level (global across all directories)

  • Makes the MCP server available across all your projects and directories
  • Stores the configuration in your user profile rather than just the current project directory
  • You won't need to re-add the MCP server when you switch between different projects

• -s local: Sets the scope to local directory only (default if not specified)

  • Only registers the MCP server for the current directory
  • You'll need to add the MCP server again if you use Claude Code in a different directory
  • Stores the configuration in the current directory

• --: Separates Claude Code arguments from the command to run

• npx -y: Runs an npm package without installing it permanently, auto-confirming

Verifying Installation

After installing, you can verify everything is working with:

claude mcp list

This should show all your installed MCP servers.

To remove a server:

claude mcp remove server-name

Testing Each Tool

Here are some quick prompts to test each tool:

• Sequential Thinking:

  Use sequential thinking to solve the Monty Hall problem
  

• Filesystem:

  List the files in my Documents folder
  

• Puppeteer:

  Navigate to example.com and take a screenshot
  

• Web Fetching:

  Fetch and summarize the content from https://example.com
  

• Brave Search:

  Search the web for recent developments in quantum computing
  

• Firecrawl:

  Search for recent news about artificial intelligence
  

• Browser Tools:

  Show me the console logs from my browser
  Run an accessibility audit on my current webpage
  

  (Make sure Chrome DevTools is open with BrowserTools tab)

Troubleshooting

Windows Issues

If commands don't work on Windows, try adding cmd /c before npx commands:

claude mcp add sequential-thinking -s user -- cmd /c npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking

Timeout Errors

Try increasing the timeout:

MCP_TIMEOUT=10000 claude

Browser Tools Issues

• Ensure both the middleware server and the MCP server are running
• Make sure Chrome DevTools is open with BrowserTools tab visible
• Check that the Chrome extension is correctly installed

Filesystem Access

Make sure to use the correct paths for your system and that Claude has appropriate permissions

Connection Problems

Use /mcp in Claude Code to check connection status of all MCP servers