⁠MCP Masterclass 🧑‍🎓 : How I Made Claude Edit Files, Write Cover Letters, Fetch Live IPL Updates!

EDITOR’S NOTE

Dear Future-Proof Humans,

What if your AI assistant could...

1️⃣ Read your latest Slack threads and summarize key action items—then add them to your Todoist automatically.
2️⃣ Pull real-time stock prices or crypto data into a report and suggest which ones to buy and sell.
3️⃣ Edit a Google Doc, create a Figma mockup, or even deploy code to GitHub—all from a single chat prompt?

Last week, we broke down MCP—the "universal remote" that lets AI like Claude interact with the real world.

I connected Claude to multiple MCP servers and watched it:
✔️ Scrape my favorite subreddits, rank the top 10 posts by engagement, and spit out LinkedIn content ideas—before I finished my coffee.
✔️ Draft a poem and save it directly to my desktop as a .txt file—no "here’s your poem, now copy-paste it" nonsense.
✔️ Research IPL 2025 live scores, summarize key highlights, and format them into a tweet-ready thread—without begging Claude for "knowledge after 2024."

In this week’s edition of Nanobits,

⚡️ My hands-on experiments (the wins + facepalms)
🔗 Examples of MCP workflows you can replicate today
⚠️ The fine print (security quirks, rate limits, and why MCP isn’t quite plug-and-play yet)

Let’s get our hands dirty.

ARE YOU NEW TO MODEL CONTEXT PROTOCOL?

Think of MCP as a universal translator—it lets AI like Claude actually interact with your apps and data (no more copy-paste purgatory).

Catch up fast: Here’s last week’s MCP explainer breaking down how it works, why it matters, and where it’s headed.

You can reach out to us if you get stuck.

MCP IN ACTION: 5 REAL-WORLD WORKFLOWS

I plugged Claude into multiple MCP servers and made it:

✍️ Write poetry and save files directly to my desktop (no manual downloads)
📊 Turn messy product feedback into viral LinkedIn content (in 60 seconds flat)🎓 Research, design, and schedule a personalized MCP learning plan (complete with deadlines in Google Tasks)

..and more.

No underlying API complexities. No coding. Just AI that finally bridges the gap between thinking and doing.

We will work with Claude Desktop as our MCP host for this newsletter.

Step 1: Download Claude Desktop

You can download the Claude desktop app from https://claude.ai/download.

Why Claude for Desktop and not Claude.ai?

Because servers are locally run, MCP currently only supports desktop hosts. Remote hosts are in active development.

Tasks with Filesystem MCP Server

The first MCP server is Filesystem; it can read from your computer’s file system, write new files, move files, and even search files.

This is what I have in mind for this server:

1. Ask Claude to write a poem and save it to my desktop automatically.

2. Ask Claude to parse my resume and a JD for Founding Marketer on my Desktop and write a cover letter to the hiring manager based on the content of the files.

Setting Up Your Filesystem MCP Server in 3 Steps:

1. Open Claude's Settings

   • On your desktop app, click the Claude menu → Select "Settings…"

   

   (Mac example shown above)

2. Enable Developer Mode

   • In the Settings sidebar, click "Developer" → "Edit Config"

   • This creates/modifies a config file at:

     • Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

     • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

   

   Edit Config [at the bottom]. You may be able to see a bunch of MCP servers already listed on my Claude Desktop App. That’s because I have already set them up.

   

   This is what a new user will see

3. Paste the MCP Server Code

• Open the file in a text editor, replace all contents with this config:

3 Critical Setup Notes:

1. Customize File Paths
   Replace username with your computer's username and ensure all directories listed (like Desktop/Downloads) exist. Add more paths if needed - these define where Claude can read/write files.

2. Node.js Requirement
   This MCP server requires Node.js. To check if it's installed:

   • Mac: Open Terminal, run node --version

   • Windows: Press Win+R → type "cmd" → run node --version
     If missing, download from nodejs.org.

3. Path Validation
   Double-check all paths in your config point to real folders. Invalid paths will cause errors when Claude tries to access them.

Bonus Tip: Need help finding your username?

• Mac: Terminal → whoami

• Windows: Command Prompt → echo %USERNAME%

For MAC:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
        "/Users/username/Desktop",
        "/Users/username/Downloads"
      ]
    }
  }
}

For Windows:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
        "C:\\Users\\username\\Desktop",
        "C:\\Users\\username\\Downloads"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Done! Restart Claude to activate the Filesystem MCP Server to load the new configuration.

• Look for the hammer icon (🛠️) in the bottom-right corner of the chat window.

• Click the hammer icon to reveal:

  • All available Filesystem MCP functions.

  • Your configured directories are ready for use.

Claude can now interact with your Filesystem! Let’s try it out:

1. Write a poem and save it to the desktop.

2. Analyze resume and JD on the desktop and write a cover letter to the hiring manager expressing interest.

Here is the prompt that I have used: 

Here is the result:

Next, let’s add a different MCP server. 

Various directories are available that provide lists of MCP servers for your review. Some of the notable ones are: 

1. smithery.ai

2. mcp.composio.dev

You can find more resources on modelcontextprotocol.io.

Some of the popular open-source repositories are: 

1. Awesome MCP Servers

2. MCP Servers Repository

Tasks with Brave Search MCP Server

Now, we know that Claude is not inherently connected to the internet. It relies on its database, whose cutoff is October 2024.

So, I connected Claude to the Brave Search MCP server so that it could respond to my queries with the latest updates.

1. We would need a Brave Search API key to connect to the server. Here’s how you can do it:

   

   Click on Add API Key to create a new key. You might have to add your credit card, but you can avail yourself of the free tier. It’s sufficient for experiments and hobby usage. The paid subscription is not that expensive either.

2. Now, come to smithery.ai and look for the Brave Search MCP server.

   

   It’s the first one with the highest number of usage.

3. Copy the API key and click on connect for the command.

   

4. Run the command on your terminal and restart the Claude desktop app.

   

5. You can check whether Claude is connected to Brave Search or not with the following prompt:

   

Now, you can put the tool to a test. Let’s ask the same question: When did IPL 2025 start?

That marks the end of our first set of experiments with MCP servers.

It shows how AI models can interact with the vast ecosystem of external tools and data sources, addressing the fundamental limitations of current AI and unlocking a new era of possibilities.

In part 2 of this newsletter, we will see how:

• You can ask Claude to suggest the best course on MCPs on the internet and prepare a flexible study plan based on your needs and add them to your Google task list with dates

• You can ask Claude to scrape your favourite subreddits, give you the top 10 posts by number of upvotes and comments, and then give you content ideas for thought leadership posts on LinkedIn.

End Note

Now, it’s your turn to automate

Our only request is that you take it slow. We have explained each step in detail so that it will help you get started smoothly. It can seem daunting, but contact us if you need clarification at any point in the flow.

I’d love to hear:
How are you using these MCP servers? What are some of the interesting use cases that you have automated with Claude and MCP servers?

Are you stuck? Do you need help tweaking Claude prompts or connecting to various MCP servers? Reply to this email, and I’ll troubleshoot with you.

Until next time, automate the grind—and keep creating.

One Last Thing:
If you have any ideas/use cases that you want to automate using MCPs, feel free to reach out to us on LinkedIn or by replying to this email.