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MCP HubQuickstart Guide

Gram AI by Speakeasy

Introducing Gram  by Speakeasy. Gram is everything you need to power integrations for Agents and LLMs. Easily create, curate and host MCP servers for internal and external use. Build custom tools and remix toolsets across 1p and 3p APIs. Get on the waitlist  today!

MCP quickstart guide

This guide walks you through connecting your first MCP server to an AI agent in under 10 minutes. We’ll use Claude Desktop as our AI client to add a file to a new project directory on your computer.

Prerequisites

Ensure the following are installed on your machine:

Step 1: Install an MCP server

We’ll use the Desktop Commander  MCP server, which lets AI agents use your local filesystem as a tool.

You have two options, depending on your preference:

The Desktop Commander auto-install script

To let Desktop Commander install the MCP server for you, run this command in your terminal:

Manual installation

If you prefer to install the MCP server manually (and learn how to install other MCP servers), open Claude Desktop and follow these steps:

A screenshot shows highlighted areas that direct the user to click on the Claude menu item, then on Settings, then on the Developer tab, and finally on Edit Config.
  1. In the top menu bar, click on the Claude menu item.
  2. Select Settings.
  3. Go to the Developer tab.
  4. Click on Edit Config.

This opens a Finder or File Explorer window showing the configuration file for Claude Desktop. Open the claude_desktop_config.json file in a text editor.

Paste the following configuration into the file:

Save the configuration file.

Step 2: Restart Claude Desktop

Close Claude Desktop completely and then reopen it. The MCP server will now be available.

Step 3: Test the connection

In Claude Desktop, try asking:

Add a folder to ~/Desktop called mcp-test and create a file called hello.txt with the content Hello, MCP!

As shown in the video above, Claude Desktop executes the command using the MCP server, creating the folder and file on your desktop. The file contains the text Hello, MCP!.

What just happened?

  1. Claude Desktop sent your prompt to Claude’s API along with a message indicating which tools it can use.
  2. Claude’s API responded with a message that included the MCP server’s name and the commands to be executed (first, create_directory, then write_file).
  3. Claude Desktop sent the commands to the Desktop Commander MCP server.
  4. Desktop Commander executed the commands on your local file system, creating the folder and file as requested.

Steps 2 to 4 are repeated for each command, allowing the AI agent to see the results of its actions and continue the conversation.

In the end, you see a confirmation message in Claude Desktop notifying you that the folder and file have been created successfully:

Done. I’ve created the mcp-test folder in your Desktop directory and added the hello.txt file with the content ‘Hello, MCP!’ inside it.

Next steps

Now that you have MCP working, explore more:

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