What an MCP actually is
MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, and you can forget the name the moment you have read it. What it is: a standard plug. One agreed way for Claude to talk to any tool.
Before it, connecting an AI to your CRM meant someone building that specific connection by hand, and then building it again for your calendar, and again for your inbox. Now the tool publishes one MCP server, and any AI that speaks the standard can use it. The tool does the work once, and everyone benefits.
In Claude, a tool plugged in this way is called a connector. Same thing, friendlier name. When you see "connector" on screen, that is an MCP you have switched on.
Every answer Claude gave you in Layer 1 came from what you told it plus what it already knew. A connector changes the source. Ask "which leads have gone quiet?" and it reads your actual CRM, today, and answers with names. That is the difference between advice and information.
The tools most owners connect first: the CRM, Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Drive, Notion, Slack, Stripe. Claude keeps a growing list in the app, and if the one you want is not there, Day 8 covers adding it anyway.
The three steps
This is the reel, written down. Five minutes if the tool is in the list.
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Add the connector
In Claude, open Settings → Connectors (on some accounts the menu is labelled Customize) and click the + button. Browse the list and pick the tool. Mine is my CRM. Sign in to that tool when it asks, authorise the access, and it is connected. No API keys, no code. It is your account talking to Claude.
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Turn it on, and prove it is live
Connectors are switched on per conversation. In any chat, hit +, hover Connectors, and toggle the tool on. Then ask it something real. Not "are you connected?", but a question only your data can answer: "how many leads came in this week, and which ones have no next action?" If it comes back with names and numbers from the tool, you are live.
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Set the permissions
This is the bit most people never check, and it decides exactly how much control Claude has over your data. Back in Settings → Connectors, open the connector and find Tool permissions. The full walkthrough is in the next section.
Once you have connected the tool and set the permissions, prove the whole thing works by asking a real question or running a small test. Do not assume. A connector that authorised but never got toggled on in the chat looks identical to one that is working, right up until you rely on it.
The permissions panel
Every connector exposes a list of things Claude can do with it, and they split into two groups: things that read your data (list records, search, fetch a contact) and things that write or delete it (create a record, update a field, remove one).
For each of those, you pick one of three settings.
| Setting | What happens | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Always allow | Claude uses the tool without asking you. | Reads. Looking something up cannot break anything. |
| Needs approval | Claude tells you what it wants to do and waits for your yes. | Anything that changes data: creating, updating, deleting, sending. |
| Blocked | Claude cannot use that tool at all in this connector. | Actions you never want it near. Deleting records in a CRM is a good candidate. |
Reads on always allow. Anything that writes or deletes on needs approval. Nothing changes in my systems without me saying yes, and I still get the full speed of Claude reading everything instantly.
Start there. Loosen a specific write to always allow only once you have watched it ask for approval a dozen times and never once wanted to say no.
Human in the loop by default. Every system in this series, right up to the agents in Layer 4, runs on the same principle: Claude can look at anything, and it asks before it changes anything. The permissions panel is where that principle gets set for real, tool by tool.
The first ten questions to ask your CRM
Once the connector is live. Written for a property business, but swap the nouns and they fit any pipeline.
- Which leads have had no contact from us in the last 14 days? List them with the last thing that happened.
- Which deals have sat at the same stage for more than 30 days?
- Who did I promise a follow-up to this week, and has it happened?
- Which lead sources brought in the most enquiries in the last 90 days, and which of those actually converted?
- Show me every contact missing a phone number or an email.
- Summarise everything we know about {name} before my call at 2pm, including every note.
- What is the pipeline worth by stage right now?
- Which enquiries came in more than 24 hours ago with no reply logged?
- Find any duplicate contacts and tell me which ones look like the same person.
- Draft a follow-up to everyone who went quiet after a viewing last month. One message per person, in my tone, and do not send or save anything until I have read them.
The last one is the pattern for everything after this. Claude reads, Claude drafts, you approve. Question 10 with the permissions set the way I described will stop and ask before it writes a single note to a record.
If your CRM has no "last contacted" field, question 1 cannot be answered, and Claude will tell you so. The first week with a connector usually shows you the two or three fields your team never fills in. Fix those, and every answer after gets sharper.
When it does not work
- Claude answers, but the answer is generic. The connector is not toggled on in this chat. Hit + and check. This is the cause nine times out of ten.
- It says it cannot access the tool. Open Settings, Connectors, and check the connector still shows as connected. Sign-ins expire. Disconnect, reconnect, start a fresh chat.
- It asks for approval on something you wanted automatic. Working as intended. Go to Tool permissions and change that one action, not the whole connector.
- The tool is not in the list. Day 8. Custom connectors take any tool that publishes an MCP address.
Connectors you set up in claude.ai are available in Claude Code too, with no extra setup. So the CRM you plugged in today is already sitting inside the folder you built on Day 5, ready for the systems later in the series.
Where this goes
Today it is one tool and a question. By the end of Layer 2 Claude is reading every number in the business each morning, turning a spreadsheet into a dashboard you can click, and answering questions about your own data in plain English.
Day 8 is the connector that is not in the list: adding a custom connector from a tool's MCP address.
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