Claude Code already reads and edits your files, so the best MCP servers are the ones that add what it cannot do alone: live docs, external systems, persistent memory and the web. Here are ten worth adding, with the claude mcp command for each.
Context & docs
- Context7 — version-correct framework docs in context.
claude mcp add context7 -- npx -y @upstash/context7-mcp. - Memory — facts that survive across sessions, so long projects keep their thread.
Code & systems
- GitHub — issues, PRs and code search across repos. See GitHub MCP server setup.
- Sentry — pull in error context when debugging.
- Linear / Jira — read and update tickets without leaving the terminal.
Databases
- Postgres — safe schema and data queries; see Postgres MCP setup.
- DBHub — universal server for MySQL/SQLite/SQL Server; see MySQL MCP setup.
Web & automation
- Brave Search / Exa — live web grounding.
- Playwright — browser automation and testing; see Playwright setup.
- Fetch — clean a single URL into context.
Adding them
Claude Code uses the CLI, not a JSON file. The pattern is claude mcp add <name> -- <command>, with --scope project to share a .mcp.json with your team. Full walkthrough in the Claude Code MCP setup guide.
Keep it lean
More servers means more tools competing for the model's attention. Four to six focused servers beat a dozen. Browse tested combinations in our curated loadouts, or the developer tools category.