Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Last Updated: October 30, 2025

This section covers the Model Context Protocol (MCP) implementation in Claude Code CLI, including scope management, installation patterns, and common gotchas.

Documents in This Section

MCP Glosses - Key Concepts and Gotchas

Personal notes and clarifications on MCP concepts that aren't always obvious from the documentation:

• Understanding scope parameters (--scope user vs default project scope)
• Transport types (HTTP vs STDIO)
• Why MCPs sometimes "disappear" between projects
• The importance of selective MCP enabling to avoid context overload
• Terminology clarifications (local vs user vs project scope)
• Configuration file locations

Cloudinary MCP Installation Guide

Step-by-step guide for installing the Cloudinary Asset Management MCP:

• JSON configuration format
• Bash command installation
• Authentication setup

Key Takeaways

Most Important: The default scope for claude mcp add is project level, not user level. If you want an MCP available across all projects, you must explicitly add --scope user.

Configuration Location: System-wide MCP configuration lives in ~/.claude/, while project-specific configuration is in ./.claude/ within each repository.

Selective Enabling: Having many MCPs defined is fine, but enable them selectively to avoid overwhelming the agent with too many tool definitions at once.