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Hands-On MCP: Connect Anything to AI | A Vancouver DevFest 2025 workshop by @mor10

What you'll need to follow this workshop

  • Laptop with an internet connection
  • GitHub account (free, pro, edu, or enterprise)
  • VS Code with GitHub Copilot installed
  • Claude account (paid version is necessary for MCP experiments)
  • Zapier account (free is sufficient)
  • A healthy disrespect for the sanctity of technology (and your computer)

Hands-On Exercise #1: Give Claude Desktop (Almost) Unlimited Powers with Zapier MCP Server

Step 0: Join the Undestroyers Slack for experimentation

Visit this invite link and go through the process to join: https://join.slack.com/t/undestroyers/shared_invite/zt-3eiyedlb4-8mh4Pg84dFOvQHkmrWv6Rw

Step 1: Set up a new MCP Server in Zapier

  1. Go to mcp.zapier.com
  2. Press the "+ New MCP Server" button
  3. Under "MCP Client" use the drop-down to select "Claude"
  4. Give your MCP server a recognizable name like "My Custom Zapier MCP Server"

Step 2: Add Slack tools

  1. In the new MCP Server, press the "+ Add tool" button to add tools.
  2. Search for Slack
  3. Under Slack, select "Find Public Channel"
  4. Go through the authentication loop (Note: you must have Slack open and be logged in for this)
  5. Repeat 1-3 and add "Send Channel Message"

Note

Most (if not all) tools require some form of authentication, so connect to services you already have an account for.

Step 3: Add the MCP server to Claude

  1. In Zapier MCP, switch to the "Connect" tab at the top
  2. Follow the step-by-step instructions on the page
  3. Go through the OAuth flow when prompted
  4. In Claude, click the "Search and tools" button in the chat window (looks like two faders)
  5. Make sure "Zapier" shows up as an active tool (not greyed out)

If Zapier is not active:

  1. In Claude, go to Settings -> Connectors
  2. Try connecting Zapier again

Note

If you're using a brand new Zapier account, you may have to wait for Claude to be able to connect. This appears to be an anti-abuse feature.

Step 4: Test the MCP server

If Zapier is active in Claude:

  1. Start a new chat
  2. Submit a prompt similar to this:
Send a message in the #future-product-days channel saying "Success! (this message is from [insert your name])" or similar.
  1. Wait and see what happens!

Hands-on Exercise #2: Play around with local MCP Servers

  1. Clone this repo to your computer
  2. Open VS Code to this project
  3. Open /simple-mcp-server or /weather-server and follow the instructions in README.md

Hands-On Exercise #3: Build your own MCP Server

  1. Clone this repo to your computer
  2. Open VS Code to this project
  3. Go to the /simple-server-exercise/ folder
  4. Open README.md
  5. Follow the instructions

Links for Further MCP Exploration

Contributors

mor10

Issues