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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://claude.com/docs/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Getting started

Authentication is the most common stumbling block. Before you build, read the authentication reference—Claude’s auth support differs from the generic MCP spec in a few important ways.
Not sure whether to build an MCP server, a plugin, or both? See what to build.
Build with Claude. Install the official mcp-server-dev plugin in Claude Code—it walks you through building, testing, and packaging an MCP server interactively, using these docs as its reference.

Key resources

  • SDK Examples: TypeScript and Python SDKs contain server implementation examples
  • Protocol Specification: modelcontextprotocol.io
  • Hosting Solutions: Platforms like Cloudflare offer remote MCP server hosting with autoscaling and OAuth management
  • Auth Specifications: Review the authorization spec with emphasis on third-party service flows

Transport & authentication

Supported transports

Claude supports both Streamable HTTP and the legacy HTTP+SSE transport. The legacy HTTP+SSE transport is being deprecated in favor of Streamable HTTP.

Authentication features

  • Supports the 2025-03-26, 2025-06-18, and 2025-11-25 auth specifications
  • Dynamic Client Registration (DCR) enabled
  • OAuth callback: https://claude.ai/api/mcp/auth_callback (hosted surfaces); loopback redirect for Claude Code — see callback URLs
  • Token refresh and expiry support
  • Custom credentials for non-DCR servers

Protocol features

Supported

Not yet supported

  • Resource subscriptions
  • Sampling
  • Advanced/draft capabilities

Technical specifications

ConstraintLimit
Claude.ai/Desktop max tool result size~150,000 characters
Claude Code max tool result size25,000 tokens (configurable via MAX_MCP_OUTPUT_TOKENS)
Claude Code timeoutConfigurable via MCP_TOOL_TIMEOUT
Claude.ai/Desktop timeout300 seconds (5 minutes)
Transport protocolStreamable HTTP (legacy HTTP+SSE being deprecated)

Testing your server

  1. Add directly to Claude via Settings > Connectors
  2. Use the MCP inspector tool to validate auth flows

MCP Overview

Understanding the Model Context Protocol.

Submit to Directory

Review requirements and submit your connector.