Use claude mcp to Add and Manage MCP Servers Without Editing JSON

Adding MCP servers by editing JSON files works, but the claude mcp command is faster and less error-prone — no mismatched brackets or typos in config keys.

# Add an MCP server to your project
claude mcp add my-docs npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem ./docs

That's it — one command, and the server is configured. Claude Code will have access to it in your next session.

List all configured servers to see what's available:

claude mcp list

Remove a server you no longer need:

claude mcp remove my-docs

You can scope servers to different levels:

# Project-level — shared with your team via git
claude mcp add --scope project postgres npx @modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres

# User-level — available across all your projects
claude mcp add --scope user github npx @modelcontextprotocol/server-github

# Local-level — just for this machine, not in git
claude mcp add --scope local my-private-tool npx my-private-mcp-server

For servers that need environment variables:

claude mcp add --env API_KEY=your-key my-api npx my-api-server

A few practical setups:

# File system access for documentation
claude mcp add docs npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem ./docs

# GitHub integration
claude mcp add github npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-github

# Database access
claude mcp add postgres npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres

# Memory for persistent context
claude mcp add memory npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-memory

After adding a server, restart your Claude Code session for it to take effect. The server appears alongside Claude's built-in tools — no extra configuration needed.

Managing MCP servers should be as easy as installing packages — claude mcp add makes it one command instead of a JSON editing session.

via Claude Code