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Add an MCP Server to Claude

To add an MCP server to Claude, open the MCP or connectors settings in Claude, on desktop or web, add a custom connector, and paste the server URL. For Zambo, that URL is https://zambo.dev/mcp, with no API key. Start a fresh chat, confirm the tools appear, and run one small call you can check. This page walks a complete beginner through the whole path, from the paste to tools, memory, handover, and receipts.

See the loop first if you like: the live demo runs one real Zambo call and hands you its receipt, no signup. The endpoint you will paste is zambo.dev/mcp.

Updated October 20, 2026.

What an MCP server is, in plain words

MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is a standard way for an AI app to plug in outside tools. Think of it as the difference between a very smart colleague who can only talk, and the same colleague with access to live data, files, checks, and a notebook that persists between meetings. Claude on its own reasons and writes extremely well, but everything it knows in a session comes from its training and from what you paste in. Claude with an MCP server connected can reach out during the conversation: run a check, fetch current information, save a fact for next time, and leave a record of what it did.

The server itself is a service at one web address. Claude connects to that address, reads the tool list the server offers, and calls tools when your request needs one. For a hosted server like Zambo there is nothing to install and no process to run on your machine. You add the address once, in settings, and new chats can use the tools from then on. If this is your first MCP server, Zambo is a forgiving place to learn the flow: one short URL, no API key, and a built in way to prove the connection works, because every call produces a receipt you can check yourself.

Before you start: what you need

You need your Claude account, on desktop or on the web, the server address copied exactly, and a few minutes. The address for Zambo is https://zambo.dev/mcp. Copy it character for character: an added space, a missing letter, or an extra path will stop the connection in ways that look mysterious until you compare the paste against the original. You do not need an API key, a developer account, or any local software. You also do not need to decide anything permanent: a connector can be removed in the same settings where you add it, so this is a reversible experiment, not a commitment.

Prepare one small test job before you start, something current and checkable: a price you can compare, a page of your own you can audit, a fact about your own site you already know. The test matters more than the paste. Settings screens can save a broken entry without complaint, so the only honest definition of connected is a tool running, a result returning, and a receipt verifying. Build that test into your first session and you will never have to wonder whether the setup worked.

Step by step: add the Zambo MCP server to Claude

Step 1. Open the MCP or connectors settings in Claude, on desktop or web.

Step 2. Add a custom connector.

Step 3. Paste https://zambo.dev/mcp as the server URL. No API key is needed, so leave any key field alone.

Step 4. Save the connector.

Step 5. Start a fresh chat, so the session begins with the current connector list in place.

Step 6. Confirm the Zambo tools appear before you run real work.

Step 7. Run the first test call in the next section, and check its receipt.

The same seven steps work on Claude desktop and on the web, because the flow is the same in both: settings, custom connector, one URL, fresh chat, test. Learn it once and you also know how to add any other MCP server to Claude, and how to remove this one if you ever want to. The Zambo specific part is only the address and what sits behind it: 153 tools in total, memory on your own account, handover, and receipts in the open AER-1 format, draft-zambo-aer1-24, an IETF Internet-Draft.

Your first tool call, and how to check it

In the fresh chat, ask Claude for something small that a tool must answer: a current price, a live check on a web page, an audit of a site you know. A good test has a right answer you can recognize on sight. Watch the result for the receipt link that comes with a Zambo call. Open the receipt, then run the free check at zambo.dev/verify, no signup needed. A match confirms the saved result was not changed after the fact, and confirms your whole setup at the same time: Claude reached zambo.dev/mcp, the tool ran, and the record is checkable by anyone.

If you want to see that loop before touching any settings, the live demo runs one real Zambo call in about 10 seconds and hands you its receipt. Many beginners find the order reassuring: demo first, settings second, test call third. Either order ends in the same place, a connection you have personally watched work, which is a very different thing from a connection a settings page claims is fine.

What you can do once Claude is connected

Tools. The connected client can call Zambo tools directly in the session: web and data checks, current prices instead of training data guesses, site audits, document and file work, lead finding with the leadsignal tool, and the everyday jobs that used to mean opening five tabs and copying results back into the conversation by hand. Ask for the job in plain words and let the client pick the tool, then read the result the way you would read any work product, critically and in full.

Memory. Zambo memory holds only facts you explicitly save, through memory_remember, and brings them back through memory_recall. Save a preference, a project rule, a price, or the current state of a long job once, and any AI connected to the same Zambo account can recall it later. The store does not import your conversations and it does not guess: if a fact is in there, someone put it there on purpose, and you can review and correct it the same way.

Handover. When a job is finished, package it as a handover: one link carrying the goal, the steps in order, the outputs, and any open items. The person receiving it opens the link with no account and clicks Accept or Flag. You cannot accept your own handover, which is exactly what makes the acceptance recorded on it worth showing later.

Receipts. Every tool call returns a verifiable receipt for its saved result. Anyone can check a receipt free at zambo.dev/verify with no signup, and the check confirms the saved result was not changed after the fact. It does not prove the result was right, and this page will not pretend otherwise. It proves what ran and what came back, unaltered, which is the half of accountability that a confident summary cannot supply on its own.

Default surface or full surface: which URL should you paste?

The plain address, https://zambo.dev/mcp, loads 35 tools on the default surface. That set covers the everyday work most Claude sessions do: live checks, web and data work, file jobs, memory saves and recalls, continuity, and handover. A deliberate smaller surface helps a careful model stay careful: fewer near identical options means cleaner tool picks and sessions that are easier for you to follow and audit afterwards.

All 153 tools are available by changing the URL to https://zambo.dev/mcp?full=true. Use full for exploration, when you want to discover what the catalogue holds, or for a broad audit where you cannot know in advance which specialist tool the job will need. Then return to the default for daily work. Treat the choice as per purpose, not as a status symbol: more tools loaded is more context spent and more chances to pick wrong, which is why the default exists and why most connected users live on it.

Using the connection well in everyday Claude work

Claude sessions often run long and deep: research that builds over an hour, documents drafted in stages, analysis that depends on facts gathered earlier in the same conversation. A connection rewards three habits in that kind of work. First, ground the load bearing facts with tool calls instead of training data, especially anything current, priced, or published. Second, save the turning points: when the session settles a decision, a definition, or a project rule, ask Claude to save it with memory_remember in one sentence, so the next session, in Claude or in ChatGPT, Cursor, or Grok on the same account, starts from it instead of rediscovering it. Third, when the work is for someone else, close with a handover link, so they accept or flag the actual record rather than a summary of it.

There is also a quieter benefit that shows up after a week: continuity. Work state saved in one AI can be opened in another AI connected to the same Zambo account and continued there. The model changes, the facts and the records stay put. For people who use Claude for thinking and another client for building, that continuity is often the reason the connection stops being an experiment and becomes infrastructure.

Troubleshooting: when the server does not show up

What it costs

Connecting the server costs nothing to set up, and checking a receipt is always free. When the connection becomes part of a real working day, a Day Pass at $0.99 covers 24 hours of full access: enough to connect in the morning, run real jobs through the day, save the facts that matter, and hand the finished work over with its record attached. Ongoing use is the Zambo Pass at $29 a month or $290 a year, and $19 a month for $ZAMBO holders. Humans pay by PayPal or card through PayPal; agents pay USDC on Base through x402. Read that pricing as the price of solving the connection problem properly, with tools, memory, and proof in one place, rather than as a charge for the paste itself, which takes a minute and costs nothing.

Honest limits

Three limits, stated plainly. First, connectors widen what Claude can reach, which widens what you should review: connect only servers you understand, to accounts you control, for jobs you can name. Second, a verifiable receipt proves a saved result was not changed after the fact; it never proves the work was correct, well judged, or complete, so read outputs the way you would read any tool output. Third, memory holds only what you explicitly save: Claude will not automatically learn your facts through this connection, which is the control you gain and the habit you have to build.

Frequently asked questions

How do I add an MCP server to Claude?

Open the MCP or connectors settings in Claude, on desktop or web, add a custom connector, and paste https://zambo.dev/mcp as the server URL, with no API key. Start a fresh chat and confirm the Zambo tools appear before you run real work. Then run one small call you can verify by eye, and open its receipt at https://zambo.dev/verify/ to confirm the connection works end to end, from Claude to a checkable record.

Do I need an API key to add an MCP server to Claude?

No. The Zambo server is hosted at https://zambo.dev/mcp, so the connection is one URL and no key: nothing to generate, store, or rotate, and nothing to install locally. Add a custom connector in the MCP or connectors settings in Claude, paste the URL, save, and start a fresh chat. Guides that show a key or a local command for this step are describing locally run servers, which Zambo is not.

What can Claude do once an MCP server is connected?

Claude can call the connected tools inside the conversation: live web and data checks, current prices, site audits, file work, and lead finding, instead of working from training data alone. Through Zambo it also gains memory saved on purpose with memory_remember and recalled with memory_recall, handover links that a client can accept or flag, and a verifiable receipt for every tool call, which anyone can check free at https://zambo.dev/verify/.

Should I use the default or the full Zambo tool surface in Claude?

Start with the default surface at https://zambo.dev/mcp, which loads 35 tools: the everyday set, small enough that Claude picks tools cleanly and sessions stay easy to follow. Use the full surface, https://zambo.dev/mcp?full=true with all 153 tools, only for sessions that genuinely need a specialist tool outside the default set, such as an exploration day or a broad audit. For normal daily work, the default surface is the better setting for most users.

How much does it cost to add an MCP server to Claude this way?

Adding the connector costs nothing to set up, and checking a receipt is free at https://zambo.dev/verify/ with no signup. For $0.99, a Day Pass covers 24 hours of full access, enough to connect Claude and run a full day of recorded work through it. Ongoing use is the Zambo Pass at $29 a month or $290 a year, and $19 a month for $ZAMBO holders. Humans pay by PayPal or card through PayPal; agents pay USDC on Base through x402.

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