The Best MCP Servers — Curated Overview 2026

MCP (Model Context Protocol) Servers extend Claude Code with external services. Here are the best official and community MCP servers organized by category.

Official MCP Servers (Anthropic)

GitHub: https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers

Filesystem MCP

claude mcp add github:modelcontextprotocol/servers/filesystem

What you can do:

Read files (read_file)
Write files (write_file)
Directory listing (list_directory)
Find files (find_files)

GitHub MCP

claude mcp add github:modelcontextprotocol/servers/github

What you can do:

Repository operations (clone, fetch, push)
Issues & Pull requests (create, list, update)
Gist management
Repository search
Commit history

Slack MCP

claude mcp add github:modelcontextprotocol/servers/slack

Commands:

Send message (send_message)
Search messages (search_messages)
User information (get_user)
Workspace info (get_workspace_info)

Google Drive MCP

claude mcp add github:modelcontextprotocol/servers/google_drive

Features:

File browsing
File search
File creation & updates
Share management

PostgreSQL MCP

claude mcp add github:modelcontextprotocol/servers/postgresql

Operations:

Queries (query)
Schema inspection (describe_table)
Transaction management

SQLite MCP

claude mcp add github:modelcontextprotocol/servers/sqlite

Best for: Local development, prototyping.

GitHub's Official MCP Server

GitHub: https://github.com/github/github-mcp-server

git clone https://github.com/github/github-mcp-server.git
cd github-mcp-server
npm install && npm run build

Features:

Repository Operations:

/github get-repository --owner anthropics --repo claude-code
/github list-repositories --user USERNAME
/github create-repository --name my-project --private

Issues Management:

/github create-issue --repo my-project --title "Bug: xyz" --body "Details"
/github update-issue --repo my-project --issue 42 --state closed
/github list-issues --repo my-project --labels bug

Pull Requests:

/github create-pull-request \
  --repo my-project \
  --title "Feature: Add CLI" \
  --head feature/cli \
  --base main
/github get-pull-request --repo my-project --number 15

Gist Management:

/github create-gist --description "My code" --files [...] --public

Cloud Service MCPs

AWS MCP

pip install aws-mcp
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=...
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=...

Supported services:

EC2 (Instances)
S3 (Storage)
Lambda (Functions)
RDS (Databases)
CloudWatch (Monitoring)

Google Cloud MCP

pip install gcp-mcp
gcloud auth application-default login

Services:

Compute Engine
Cloud Storage
Cloud Run
Cloud SQL

Azure MCP

pip install azure-mcp
az login

Services:

VMs
App Service
Storage
Databases

Database MCPs

PostgreSQL

claude mcp add postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/dbname

MySQL / MariaDB

claude mcp add mysql://user:pass@localhost:3306/dbname

MongoDB

claude mcp add mongodb://user:pass@localhost:27017/dbname

SQLite (local)

claude mcp add sqlite://./local.db

Communications MCPs

Slack (official)

claude mcp add github:modelcontextprotocol/servers/slack

Discord

pip install discord-mcp
export DISCORD_TOKEN=...

Commands:

Send message
List channels
Role management
User info

Email / IMAP

pip install email-mcp
# Configure with Gmail/Outlook credentials

Features:

Read emails
Send emails
Folder management
Search

Developer Tool MCPs

Docker

pip install docker-mcp
# Requires docker socket

Commands:

Manage containers
List images
View logs
Network management

Kubernetes

pip install k8s-mcp
kubectl config use-context my-cluster

Features:

Pod management
Deployment monitoring
Service management
Log streaming

Terraform

pip install terraform-mcp

Operations:

Plan
Apply
Destroy
State management

Browser & Web MCPs

Playwright (web automation)

pip install playwright-mcp
playwright install

Commands:

Open website
Click, type, fill
Screenshot
PDF export

Puppeteer (Node.js alternative)

npm install puppeteer-mcp

AI/ML MCPs

Ollama (local LLMs)

pip install ollama-mcp
export OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434

Load models:

/ollama generate --model mistral "Explain MCP"

HuggingFace

pip install huggingface-mcp
export HF_TOKEN=...

Stripe

pip install stripe-mcp
export STRIPE_API_KEY=...

Operations:

Create customers
Manage payments
Subscriptions
Invoicing

MCP Server Finder & Discovery

Punkpeye's Awesome MCP Servers

GitHub: https://github.com/punkpeye/awesome-mcp-servers

The best source for new MCP servers. 200+ servers categorized.

mcpcat.io

Online directory of all available MCP servers.

mcp.run

Testing ground. Try MCP servers online before installing.

Installation Patterns

Pattern 1: Official GitHub Server

claude mcp add github:modelcontextprotocol/servers/filesystem

Pattern 2: GitHub Repo

claude mcp add github:username/repo-name

Pattern 3: Local Directory

claude mcp add file:///path/to/mcp-server

Pattern 4: NPM Package

claude mcp add npm:mcp-server-name

Pattern 5: Python Package

pip install mcp-server-name
# Then configure in Claude Code

Configuration in settings.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["./servers/github/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_TOKEN": "${GITHUB_TOKEN}"
      }
    },
    "slack": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "slack_mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SLACK_TOKEN": "${SLACK_BOT_TOKEN}"
      }
    },
    "postgres": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "postgresql_mcp"],
      "env": {
        "DATABASE_URL": "postgresql://localhost/mydb"
      }
    }
  }
}

MCP Servers by Use Case

Frontend Development

Filesystem (local files)
Git (version control)
Browser/Playwright (testing)

Backend Development

PostgreSQL / MySQL (databases)
GitHub (CI/CD, code review)
Docker (containers)

DevOps

Kubernetes (orchestration)
AWS / GCP / Azure (cloud)
Terraform (infrastructure)
Slack (notifications)

Data Science

PostgreSQL (data storage)
Ollama (local LLMs)
HuggingFace (models)
Google Drive (files)

Business Automation

Slack (communication)
Email (IMAP)
Stripe (payments)
Google Drive (documents)

Common Setup Errors

Error 1: Token not set

Problem: GITHUB_TOKEN not found

Solution:

export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxxxxxxxxxxx
# Then reference in settings.json: ${GITHUB_TOKEN}

Error 2: Service not reachable

Problem: Connection refused on localhost:5432

Solution:

# Check if service is running
postgres: pg_isready
docker: docker ps
kubernetes: kubectl get pods

Error 3: Permissions error

Problem: Permission denied reading /home/user/file

Solution:

chmod u+r /path/to/file
# Or start MCP server with sudo
sudo claude mcp add ...

Performance: Too many MCP servers?

Problem: With 20+ MCP servers, Claude gets slow (each server is loaded).

Solution: Use mcp2cli to expose only needed tools.

mcp2cli convert openapi \
  https://api.github.com/openapi.json \
  --tools "repos,issues" \
  --output github-filtered.json

MCP Servers Overview Table

Server	Category	Setup	Features	Best For
GitHub	VCS	5min	Issues, PRs, repos	Code management
PostgreSQL	Database	10min	Query, inspect	Data analysis
Slack	Communication	5min	Messages, channels	Team notification
Docker	DevOps	10min	Containers, images	Local dev
Kubernetes	DevOps	15min	Pods, services	Production
AWS	Cloud	15min	EC2, S3, Lambda	Infrastructure
Google Drive	Files	5min	Upload, download	Document storage
Stripe	Payments	5min	Customers, charges	E-commerce
Playwright	Testing	10min	Browser control	Web testing
Ollama	AI	5min	Local models	Privacy-first

Quick Start — 3 MCP Servers (Common Setup)

# 1. GitHub (for code management)
claude mcp add github:github/github-mcp-server

# 2. Filesystem (local)
claude mcp add github:modelcontextprotocol/servers/filesystem

# 3. PostgreSQL (your database)
claude mcp add postgresql://user:pass@localhost/mydb

# Start
claude code

Sources and Links

https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers (Official)
https://github.com/github/github-mcp-server
https://github.com/punkpeye/awesome-mcp-servers (Awesome list)
https://mcpcat.io (Online directory)
https://mcp.run (Testing ground)
https://anthropic.com/docs/model-context-protocol

Official MCP Servers (Anthropic)

Filesystem MCP

GitHub MCP

Slack MCP

Google Drive MCP

PostgreSQL MCP

SQLite MCP

GitHub's Official MCP Server

Features:

Cloud Service MCPs

AWS MCP

Google Cloud MCP

Azure MCP

Database MCPs

PostgreSQL

MySQL / MariaDB

MongoDB

SQLite (local)

Communications MCPs

Slack (official)

Discord

Email / IMAP

Developer Tool MCPs

Docker

Kubernetes

Terraform

Browser & Web MCPs

Playwright (web automation)

Puppeteer (Node.js alternative)

AI/ML MCPs

Ollama (local LLMs)

HuggingFace

Stripe

MCP Server Finder & Discovery

Punkpeye's Awesome MCP Servers

mcpcat.io

mcp.run

Installation Patterns

Pattern 1: Official GitHub Server

Pattern 2: GitHub Repo

Pattern 3: Local Directory

Pattern 4: NPM Package

Pattern 5: Python Package

Configuration in settings.json

MCP Servers by Use Case

Frontend Development

Backend Development

DevOps

Data Science

Business Automation

Common Setup Errors

Error 1: Token not set

Error 2: Service not reachable

Error 3: Permissions error

Performance: Too many MCP servers?

MCP Servers Overview Table

Quick Start — 3 MCP Servers (Common Setup)

Sources and Links

Continue the learning path