Anthropic Expands Claude's Reach with Remote MCP Servers, Enabling Seamless Tool Integration

SAN FRANCISCO – Anthropic has announced a significant architectural enhancement for its AI coding assistant, Claude Code, with the introduction of support for remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. This development, detailed on June 18, 2025, represents a major move to make Claude more extensible and powerful for developers by allowing it to securely and seamlessly connect to third-party tools, APIs, and private data sources without complex local setups. The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open protocol, championed by Anthropic, that acts as a standardized communication layer between an AI model and external tools. It allows the AI to discover what tools are available, understand their functions, and execute them to perform tasks. Previously, using MCP with Claude Code often required developers to run and maintain local servers for each tool they wanted to integrate. The new support for remote MCP servers streamlines this process dramatically. Developers can now simply add a vendor's secure URL to Claude Code to integrate their services. The vendor handles all the infrastructure, including updates, scaling, and availability, freeing the developer to focus on their work. Anthropic compared MCP to a universal USB-C port for AI, creating a standardized way for Claude to interact with a vast ecosystem of external capabilities. This move is designed to transform Claude Code from a standalone coding assistant into a centralized development hub. For example, by connecting to a Sentry MCP server, a developer could ask Claude to pull in real-time error data and help debug issues directly within their terminal. An integration with a project management tool like Linear could allow Claude to access project details, update ticket statuses, or create new issues based on a conversation, eliminating the need to constantly switch between applications. Security is a key component of this new feature. Claude Code includes native OAuth support for remote MCP servers, ensuring a secure authentication process. This means developers can connect to their existing accounts with third-party services without having to manage API keys or store sensitive credentials locally. The protocol allows the client application (in this case, Claude Code) to be responsible for implementing user confirmation for individual tool calls, providing a layer of security and control over actions performed by the AI. Anthropic is actively building an ecosystem of MCP integrations and has created a directory of recommended servers for users to explore. The company believes this open approach will foster innovation, allowing other companies and individual developers to build their own MCP servers and make their tools and data sources available to Claude. This strategy not only enhances Claude's capabilities but also positions MCP as a potential industry standard for AI tool interaction, encouraging interoperability between different models and services.