How do I connect Claude to my other tools?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the standard way to give Claude access to tools it doesn't have built in — your Google Drive, your database, your ticketing system. You add a connector once, and from then on Claude can read from and write to that tool during a normal conversation.

What does MCP stand for?

Model Context Protocol. It's an open standard for connecting AI assistants to external tools and data sources. Because it's a shared standard, one MCP server works across any app that speaks MCP — not just Claude.

It's as safe as the servers you connect and the permissions you grant. Claude asks before taking actions, and you can scope what each server is allowed to do. Treat a new MCP server like a new app you're installing — connect ones you trust, and review what they can access.

Do I need to write code to use MCP?

No. Connecting an existing MCP server is a configuration step, usually one command or a few lines in a settings file. You only write code if you're building your own server for a tool that doesn't have one yet.

Are connectors just MCP with a nice interface?

Essentially, yes. Connectors are built on MCP under the hood. The Claude app handles the setup, authentication, and permissions for you — so you get the same 'Claude can reach your tools' result without touching a terminal.

Yes, but in their respective surfaces. MCP servers you add in Claude Code are available in Claude Code sessions. Connectors you enable in the Claude app are available in Claude app conversations. They don't cross over.

Which has more integrations?

MCP has far more — there are thousands of community MCP servers for almost any tool. Connectors cover the most popular apps (Google, Notion, Slack, GitHub) with an official, polished experience. MCP wins on breadth; connectors win on ease.

Is A2A replacing MCP?

No — they solve different problems and are designed to work together. MCP connects an agent to its tools and data; A2A connects separate agents to each other. A complex system uses both: each agent talks to its own tools over MCP, and the agents coordinate over A2A.

Did Anthropic create A2A?

No. MCP is Anthropic's open standard, introduced in late 2024. A2A was created by Google in 2025. As of 2026 both are stewarded by the Linux Foundation's Agentic AI Foundation, with Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, AWS and others backing both.

Do I need A2A to use Claude Code?

No. For everyday use you connect tools with MCP and let Claude coordinate its own subagents and Agent Teams internally. A2A matters when you're wiring together agents built by different vendors that need to talk across systems.

What is an Agent Card?

It's A2A's discovery mechanism — a small, machine-readable file where an agent advertises what it can do, what inputs it accepts, and how to authenticate with it, so other agents can find it and hand it work.

Connecting Claude to your other tools

Out of the box, Claude can see the folder you opened and not much else. That is a deliberate safety boundary, but it is also a ceiling: most of your actual work lives in other systems — a shared drive, a CRM, a project tracker, a database.

MCP is how you raise that ceiling. It is a published standard, not a Claude-only feature, which matters more than it sounds: the connector someone else wrote for your ticketing system works in Claude without either team having coordinated. That is the whole point of it being a protocol rather than a plugin format.

Two things people mix up constantly, and both have their own page below: connectors are the pre-built, click-to-install integrations in the Claude apps, while MCP servers are the underlying thing a connector is — you can also point Claude at one directly. And A2A is a different protocol entirely: MCP connects an agent to tools, A2A connects an agent to other agents.

One caution worth carrying into everything below: a connector is a real grant of access. Anything Claude can reach through it, Claude can act on — so the company data and privacy question stops being theoretical the moment you install your first one.

The words

MCP Model Context Protocol: A standard way to plug extra tools and data sources into an AI — like a USB port for AI. Through MCP, Claude can connect to things like your calendar, a database, or a design tool and use them directly.
A2A Agent-to-Agent protocol · Agent2Agent: A2A (Agent-to-Agent) is an open standard that lets separate AI agents discover each other, talk, and split up work — even when they were built by different companies on different frameworks. If MCP is how one agent reaches its tools, A2A is how two agents reach each other. Each agent publishes an Agent Card describing what it can do, and others hand it tasks through a shared, defined lifecycle.