📖 The AI Tool Bible

MCP Servers

Model Context Protocol servers exposing tools, resources, and prompts to AI agents.

48 tools

Why it matters

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is Anthropic's open standard for exposing tools, data, and prompts to LLM agents. The server ecosystem exploded in 2025-2026; picking the right servers is now as important as picking the right model.

What's in here

Covers official reference servers (filesystem, github, postgres, slack), registries + directories (Smithery, PulseMCP), server frameworks (fastmcp, mcp-python-sdk), and vertical servers for databases, browsers, cloud APIs, and enterprise systems.

How to pick

Pick official reference servers for common integrations (git, filesystem, sql). Pick Smithery or PulseMCP to browse and install. Pick fastmcp when writing your own server. For internal APIs, ship an MCP wrapper rather than raw REST — every Claude-native workflow gets it for free.

MCP Fetch Server

Official Model Context Protocol reference server that lets any MCP-compatible LLM fetch web pages and read them as clean markdown.

Free· Free and open source (MIT License). No hosted tier; you run it locally via uvx, pip, or Docker.Reading documentation pages inside Claude DesktopGrabbing a GitHub README before scaffolding a project

MCP Filesystem Server

Reference MCP server that gives Claude, Cursor, and other MCP clients scoped read/write access to your local filesystem.

Free· Free and open source (MIT). Self-hosted; no vendor cost.Give Claude Desktop scoped access to a code repoLet Cursor or VS Code agents edit project files via MCP

MCP Git Server

Reference MCP server that lets any LLM read, search, and manipulate local Git repositories.

Free· Free and open source (MIT License). Self-hosted; you pay only for the compute wherever you run it.AI-drafted commit messages from staged diffsAssistant-led code review of unstaged changes

MCP Memory Server

Persistent knowledge-graph memory for Claude and other MCP clients

Free· Free and open source (MIT). Self-hosted; no vendor charges. Runs locally via npx or Docker.Persistent Claude Desktop memory across chatsLong-lived coding-agent project memory

MCP Python SDK

Official Python SDK for building Model Context Protocol servers and clients.

Free· Free, MIT-licensed open source.Exposing internal REST APIs as MCP tools for Claude DesktopWrapping a Postgres or SQLite database as an MCP server

MCP Server Kubernetes

MCP server that lets Claude, Cursor, VS Code and other agents drive kubectl and Helm against real clusters

Free· Free and open source (MIT license). Kubernetes cluster and any AI client subscriptions billed separately.AI-driven pod troubleshooting and log triageNatural-language kubectl for platform engineers

MCP Time Server

Official MCP reference server for current time and IANA timezone conversion.

Free· Free and open source (MIT-licensed reference server maintained by the Model Context Protocol project).Grounding current-time answers in a chat assistantTimezone conversion for distributed team scheduling

MCP TypeScript SDK

Official TypeScript SDK for building Model Context Protocol servers and clients.

Free· Free and open source (Apache 2.0 for new contributions; older code MIT).Wrapping an internal REST API as an MCP serverExposing a database to Claude Desktop as tools and resources

Notion MCP Server

The official Notion MCP server: give Claude, Cursor, and Copilot typed access to your Notion pages, databases, and comments.

Free· Server is free and MIT-licensed; a paid Notion workspace is only required for features gated behind Notion's own plans. Notion tiers: Free / Plus $10 per user/mo / Business $18 per user/mo / Enterprise (custom).AI agent drafting weekly status reports into a Notion pageResearch assistant querying a projects database and appending findings

Obsidian MCP

Model Context Protocol server that lets Claude read, write, and reorganize your Obsidian vault.

Free· Free and open-source (MIT). No paid tiers; users only pay for their own Obsidian license if they choose Commercial/Sync/Publish add-ons.Draft new Obsidian notes from a Claude Desktop chatBulk rename or consolidate tags across a vault

Perplexity MCP Server

MCP Servers · Perplexity Sonar family (via Agent and Search API presets)

Official MCP server for Perplexity's Sonar search, research, and reasoning APIs

Paid· Free: $0 USD · Team: $4 USD per user/month · Enterprise: $21 USD per user/monthgrounded web search inside Claude Desktopcited research briefs in Cursor

Playwright MCP

Microsoft's official Model Context Protocol server for browser automation via Playwright.

Free· Free and open source (Apache-2.0). No paid tiers — you cover browser/compute costs where you run it.Autonomous web browsing agentsEnd-to-end test authoring by demonstration

Postgres MCP Pro

MCP Servers · Model-agnostic (works with any MCP-capable LLM); optional OpenAI models for experimental LLM-based index tuning

Open-source Postgres MCP server with deterministic health checks, index tuning, and safe SQL execution.

Free· Free and open source (MIT license). No paid tiers.AI-assisted query optimization in Cursor or Claude DesktopAutomated index recommendations for slow workloads

Puppeteer MCP Server

Reference MCP server that lets LLMs drive a real Chromium browser via Puppeteer.

Free· Free and open source (MIT license). No hosted service; you run it locally under Node/Docker.Give Claude a browser to research JS-rendered pagesHave an agent fill and submit a web form

Qdrant MCP Server

MCP Servers · FastEmbed (default: sentence-transformers/all-MiniLM-L6-v2); pairs with any MCP-capable LLM such as Claude 3.5/4, GPT-4o, or local models

Official Qdrant MCP server that turns a vector database into a semantic memory layer for Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and any MCP client.

Free· Free and open source (Apache-2.0). Qdrant itself can be self-hosted for free or used via Qdrant Cloud (free tier available, paid plans from ~$25/mo for managed clusters).Persistent memory for Claude Desktop agentsSemantic code snippet search in Cursor and Windsurf

Reddit MCP (adhikasp/mcp-reddit)

MCP server that lets Claude and other LLM clients fetch and analyse Reddit threads

Free· Free and open source (MIT). No paid tier. You run it locally; Reddit's public JSON endpoints are hit unauthenticated, subject to Reddit rate limits.Subreddit hot-thread summarisationCommunity sentiment monitoring

Redis MCP Server

Archived reference MCP server exposing basic Redis set/get/delete/list to any MCP-capable LLM client.

Free· Free and open source (MIT). Self-hosted; you supply your own Redis instance.Agent short-term memorySession state for chat agents

Sentry MCP

MCP Servers · Bring-your-own LLM (OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI, or OpenRouter) for natural-language search skills; agent-side model is whatever your MCP client runs.

Official Sentry MCP server: give Claude Code, Cursor, and other AI agents real access to your errors, traces, and triage.

Freemium· Free: $0 USD · Team: $4 USD per user/month · Enterprise: $21 USD per user/monthDebug production error from IDE agentRoot-cause a latency regression via trace lookup

Sequential Thinking MCP Server

Reference MCP server for structured, revisable step-by-step reasoning in any MCP host.

Free· Free and open-source under the MIT License. No paid tiers; install via npx or Docker at no cost.Multi-step engineering planningProduction debugging walkthroughs

Slack MCP Server

Archived reference MCP server that lets Claude and other MCP clients read and post in a Slack workspace via a bot token.

Free· Free / open-source (MIT). Requires a Slack workspace and a Slack bot token; Slack itself is free/paid.Channel triage and summarisationAutomated thread digests

Spotify MCP

Model Context Protocol server that hands your LLM the Spotify Web API — playback control, search, queue and playlist management from inside Claude Desktop or any MCP client.

Free· Free / MIT-licensed open source. Requires a free Spotify developer app and a paid Spotify Premium subscription for playback control.Voice-style playback control from Claude DesktopNatural-language playlist building

SQLite MCP Server

Reference MCP server for querying and analyzing SQLite databases through Claude and other MCP clients.

Free· Free / open source (MIT). No usage fees; runs locally against a SQLite file you control.Ad-hoc SQL exploration of a local SQLite database from Claude DesktopPrototyping agentic business-intelligence workflows

Stripe Agent Toolkit

Stripe's official SDK and MCP server for wiring AI agents into payments, billing, and customer operations.

Free· Toolkit and MCP server are free (MIT). Underlying Stripe usage is billed at standard Stripe rates (typically 2.9% + 30 cents per successful card charge; billing/subscriptions and other products priced separately). LLM/model calls billed by your model provider.MCP server for Claude Desktop and CursorAI support agent that issues refunds

YouTube MCP Server

Model Context Protocol server that pulls YouTube subtitles into any MCP-capable LLM client.

Free· Free and open source (MIT). You only pay for whatever LLM sits on the other end of the MCP connection (Claude Desktop, Claude API, or any other MCP-capable client).YouTube video summarisationTranscript extraction for note-taking