MCP connectors: the full guide

You have the [name] connector connected. Before I start using
it, I want to know what it can actually do. List:

1. Every capability you see on this connector, in one
   sentence each describing what it does
2. For each one, whether it only reads or whether it can
   create, change, or delete something
3. Which ones need an identifier I have to supply (account,
   workspace, property, folder)
4. What this connector does NOT do, according to the
   descriptions, even though someone would expect it to
5. Three tasks from my own work it fits best —
   my work is [description]

Don’t invent capabilities you don’t see in the list. Where
you’re not sure what a capability does, write “unclear from
the description.”

I want to add the MCP server [name / URL or command to run]
to Claude Code. I’ve never done this before. Give me:

1. The exact command and what each of its parameters means
2. Whether it’s remote or local, and what that means for me
   in practice (where the data flows, what runs on my machine)
3. What I need to have ready beforehand (account, permissions,
   environment)
4. A query I can run after install to confirm it works
5. How to remove it again if it doesn’t go well

Don’t assume I can program. Where there’s a risk, flag it
up front, not at the end.

I’m about to connect the MCP server [name / link to
repository]. Vet it for me before I do. I want to know:

1. Who the author is, and whether it’s the maker of that
   service or a third party — and how you can tell
2. Signs of life: last change, releases shipped, open
   issues, and whether anyone answers them
3. What permissions it wants at connection time, and whether
   a narrower option exists
4. What the documentation says about where data flows and
   what gets logged — and if there’s nothing on that at all
5. Whether an alternative exists directly from the tool’s
   maker
6. Three specific things I should watch for if I connect it
   anyway

Base this only on what you actually read — cite a source for
each point. Where you can’t find something, write “not
found”; don’t infer it from the project’s name.

Two MCP servers exist for [service]: [A] and [B]. Compare
them for me in a table, by:

- provenance (service’s own maker / third party) and how
  you determined that
- where it runs (locally / remotely) and what that means for
  my data
- range of capabilities — what one can do that the other
  can’t
- activity: last change, releases shipped, response to
  issues
- what people complain about most in the issues
- what I’d give up by choosing the more cautious option

At the end, give a recommendation for two different cases:
(a) I want to try it on my own data, (b) it needs to work for
a team and client data. If the recommendations differ,
explain why.

Search [Notion / Drive] and answer a question I’d otherwise
spend an hour hunting for:

Question: [e.g. what did we land on in the pricing-change
discussion over the past six months].

Approach:
- search in [workspace / folder], period [from–to]
- list your sources: title, date, author
- separate what’s directly in the documents from your own
  summary
- where sources disagree, say so instead of picking one
- at the end, list what you didn’t find, even if it belongs
  to the topic

Don’t state anything that isn’t in the documents you found.

Connect to [database] and answer: [question].

Rules:
- read-only queries only, don’t change or delete anything
- before you run a query, show it to me and explain in
  plain language what it does
- cap the result at [100] rows and tell me the total count
- for every number, name the table and column it came from
- if you’re unsure what a column means, ask instead of
  guessing

If answering this would need a query that changes something,
write that out and don’t run it.

Look up the company [name or tax ID] through Hlídač státu:

1. Basic details and tax ID — if there are several matching
   companies, list them and ask which one I mean
2. Government contracts for [the last 3 years]: count, total
   value, biggest counterparties
3. Whether any of them are flagged as problematic
4. Public tenders, subsidies, insolvencies, criminal records,
   and VAT-payer status
5. A short summary for a non-expert: what’s worth paying
   attention to

Cite a source and date for every finding. Where data doesn’t
exist or I don’t have permission for it, say so — don’t
guess.

Go through my mail for [period] and prepare draft replies
for whatever’s waiting on a response from me.

- pick only messages that are waiting on a reply from me
- for each one, one sentence on what it’s about and how
  urgent it is
- draft a reply in my tone for each: [describe tone]
- where you’re missing information to reply, write what I
  need to find out instead of a draft
- sort by what needs to go out soonest

Don’t send anything. Save everything as a draft, and at the
end give me a table: sender, subject, status, draft length.

My work looks like this: [description — what you do, for
whom, in which tools, what repeats every week].

Tools I use: [list].

Go through it and tell me:
1. Which of my tools it’s worth looking for a connector
   for — and why those specifically
2. Which three I should turn on first, and in what order,
   with reasoning tied to what each one saves me
3. Which ones carry more risk than benefit, and why
4. Which of my tasks a connector won’t solve, even if one
   existed, because the problem isn’t data transfer

Don’t list connectors you’re not sure actually exist — write
“check the directory” for anything uncertain. I care most
about point 4, don’t shortchange it.

Help me decide whether to connect [tool].

My task: [description of what you do with the tool every
week].
How long it takes now: [time] a week.
How often: [frequency].
Data sensitivity: [what’s in this tool].

Walk through it like this:
1. Split the task into “moving data” and “deciding” — as a
   rough percentage
2. How much of that a connector would actually remove, and
   what’s left for me
3. What the overhead is: setup, learning, checking,
   maintenance
4. How long it takes to pay off at my volume
5. What would have to be true for it not to be worth it
6. Is there a simpler solution without a connector (an
   export, a template, copy-paste) that would be enough?

Be sober about it. If it turns out not to be worth it, say
so directly — don’t hunt for reasons to do it anyway.

Prepare a batch of posts from this source:

[paste the article text or a link]

Channels: [LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook page].
Period: [14] days starting [date]. Frequency: [LinkedIn 3x a
week, Instagram 2x, Facebook 2x].

For each post write:
- copy tailored to that channel (LinkedIn longer and
  substantive, Instagram shorter with a strong first line,
  Facebook medium length)
- a note on what the image should show (just a description,
  don’t generate an image)
- a suggested day and time, with reasoning
- one extra variant of the opening line so I have a choice

It shouldn’t be the same text just shortened — each channel
should take its own angle from the source. Don’t state
anything that isn’t in the source.

Don’t create anything in Buffer yet, just list it out in
chat.

Pull my post metrics from Buffer for [the last 3 months] on
channel [channel] and break it down:

1. The ten best- and ten worst-performing posts — for each,
   date, first 80 characters, key metric
2. What the top ones have in common: topic, format, length,
   opening-line type, day and time, whether there’s an image
3. Same for the weak ones
4. Which differences are a real pattern and which could be
   noise from a small sample
5. Three changes for next month and how I’ll know they
   worked

Be cautious on point 4: if a claim rests on fewer than [10]
posts, say so explicitly instead of drawing a conclusion.
Base this only on metrics you actually pulled.

Find my brand template [name] in Canva and produce a series
of designs from this table:

[paste the data — e.g. headline / subhead / name / date for
each item, one row per design]

Rules:
- insert text verbatim, don’t rephrase or shorten anything
- when text doesn’t fit a field, skip that design and tell me
  by how many characters it’s too long
- name the designs [project]-[sequence number]
- save them into the folder [folder name]
- finish with a list of links and each one’s status

Don’t publish or share anything outward.

There are [50] product photos in the folder [path]. Process
them like this:

1. Remove the background from each one
2. Crop to content and add a uniform [8] percent margin
3. Standardize to [1600 x 1600] px, product centered
4. Save as [PNG with transparency] into [destination folder],
   keeping the filename and adding a -clean suffix

Before you start, do the first three and show me — once I
approve them, run the rest. Where background removal doesn’t
come out clean (hair, transparent materials, fine detail),
skip the file and add it to a list for manual finishing.

Turn this process description into a flowchart in Lucid:

[paste the process description — paragraphs are fine, as
written]

- each step as a block, decision points as diamonds
- name the role that does each step under the step’s title
- label branches at decisions (yes/no or the specific
  condition)
- where the description has a gap — a step that leads
  nowhere, or a decision missing a second branch — add an
  “UNRESOLVED: [what’s missing]” block instead of guessing
- name the diagram [name], save it in folder [folder], and
  finish with a list of what you flagged as unresolved

Look at my GA4 property [name or ID] and tell me, for the
period [July 1–31, 2026] versus [the previous month]:

1. What changed in traffic — total and by channel (organic,
   direct, referral, paid, social), in percentages and
   absolute numbers
2. Which pages gained the most and lost the most, ten and
   ten, with numbers
3. For the three biggest changes, what explanations are
   plausible and how I’d verify each with another query
   against the data

Rules:
- don’t give a percentage change for numbers under [100]
  visits — give absolute values instead
- separate your own conclusions from what’s directly in the
  data
- where a metric is missing, say so instead of guessing

Prepare a monthly report for [client] covering [month]:

1. From GA4 property [name]: total and per-channel traffic,
   the ten most-visited pages, conversions on [event] —
   all versus last month
2. From Notion, page [name]: what we launched or changed
   this month, with dates
3. For every significant change in the numbers, note whether
   it lines up in time with anything from point 2

Format: two pages — a five-sentence summary first, then the
numbers, then what it means for next month.

Don’t mistake a time overlap for a cause — where things
overlap, write “coincides with,” not “caused.” Cite where
every number comes from.

I want to process [task description — e.g. generate
illustrations for 200 articles / classify 5000 comments]
through the Gemini API.

Estimate the cost for me:
1. Which billing type applies to this task (tokens / per
   image / per second of video)
2. Volume estimate — for text, estimate input and output
   tokens and say what the estimate is based on
3. Cost at standard processing and at batch processing
4. How the cost changes with a cheaper model, and what I
   actually lose by using it
5. Three ways to cut the volume without losing the result

Use the price list I give you: [paste the current price
list]. Don’t work from prices in memory — they may have
changed.

Work in this project’s folder. I want a script that uses the
Gemini API to [task description — e.g. generate an
illustration for every article / transcribe the audio files
in a folder].

Requirements:
- read the API key ONLY from the environment variable [name];
  if it’s missing, exit with a clear message
- never print the key to a log or output
- read inputs from [path], write outputs to [path]
- skip any item that already has output
- with no arguments, process everything; with arguments,
  process only the named items
- a call counter with a cap of [50]; stop if it’s exceeded
- on an error for one item, keep going and print a summary
  at the end: how many done, skipped, failed
- nothing gets published or sent anywhere — output only goes
  to the folder

Add a comment at the top of the file explaining how to run
the script and what it needs set up. Comment the code in
English. Once it’s done, explain what each part does as if I
can’t program.

I’m connecting [name] and the confirmation screen is offering
these permissions:

[paste the screen text verbatim]

Translate this into plain language:
1. What only reads, and what can create, change, or delete
2. How broad the scope is — everything, or just part of it
3. Which of these rights is riskiest, and why
4. What I’d lose by not connecting it and entering data by
   hand instead
5. Whether a narrower option exists based on the description

For point 1, work only from the text I pasted. Don’t guess
what the permissions probably do based on the service’s name.

I’m doing a quarterly connector review. Here’s what I have
switched on:

[list your connectors, and for each: what you wanted it for,
when you last used it, whether it can also write]

Help me sort this out:
1. Which ones I should turn off — a reason for each
2. Which ones I can narrow to read-only without losing what
   I use them for
3. Which ones I use enough that they’re worth setting up
   better (separate account, narrower scope, different
   workspace)
4. What to check about each one in the service’s connected-
   apps list

Be strict: if a connector has no clear, regular payoff,
recommend turning it off. Turning it back on takes two
minutes.

You say you did [action description]. Verify it and tell me:

- how many items you actually created or changed, and how
  many failed
- for each one: identifier, name, status, and a link if there
  is one
- which calls returned an error, and exactly what error
- which parts of your previous answer were your own summary
  of intent, versus a confirmed result

Don’t fill in missing items by guessing, and don’t recreate
anything until I’ve reviewed this. Where you’re not sure of
the state, write “unverified” instead of asserting it.

The previous answer doesn’t look right — [it’s empty / the
numbers don’t match what I see in the tool]. Before you try
again, describe:

- which connector and which of its capabilities you used
- with what parameters (period, account, property, folder,
  filter)
- how many records it returned, and whether anything got
  truncated
- what in the answer comes directly from the loaded data, and
  what’s your own conclusion

Then propose what to change in the request. Don’t repeat the
query until we’ve agreed on what was wrong.

I’m considering a custom MCP server for [system]. Before I
build it, help me think it through:

Situation: [what the system is, who uses it, what interface
it has — API, database, web UI only].
Task: [what people ask about it, and how often].
Who would use it: [number of people, roles].

Answer:
1. Would a script or a regular export be enough for this?
   Exactly where would it fall short?
2. Which three to five capabilities the server should have
   in the first version — and what to leave for later
3. Everything that would need to be run around it (hosting,
   auth, logging, versioning, monitoring)
4. What risks come with more people having access, and how to
   limit them
5. An estimate of the first version’s effort and monthly
   upkeep

If it turns out a server is unnecessary, say that in the
first sentence and spend the rest describing the simpler
option.

Write a first version of an MCP server for [system], following
these rules:

- read-only, no capability may change or delete anything
- capabilities: [list of 3–5 things it should do]
- credentials are read ONLY from environment variables; if
  missing, the server won’t start and prints why
- no data gets logged, only the name of the capability
  called, the time, and whether it succeeded
- write an English description for each capability so it’s
  clear when to use it and what it returns
- if a query would return more than [100] items, truncate the
  result and say in the response that it was truncated and
  what the total count is
- on error, return a readable message, not a technical dump

Add a comment at the top explaining how to run the server and
what it needs configured. Once it’s done, explain what each
part does, and give me three queries to confirm it works.