Lesson 5.2 — Tools & MCP: Giving an Agent Hands

Introduction to AI · Module 5: AI Agents · About 75 min · Windows PC, PowerShell 5, Claude Code (Max)

Goal: plug a new tool into Claude Code using MCP (Model Context Protocol, a standard plug for AI tools), and use it to fetch a web page and save a summary.

Before you start

• Lesson 5.1 done (Claude Code installed and logged in)
• cd $HOME\agent-night

Step 1 · See the built-in tools (⏱ 0:00–0:10)

claude

Type:

List the tools you have available right now, one line each.

You should see tools like Read, Write, Edit, Bash/PowerShell, Glob, Grep and WebFetch.

**Type /exit and press Enter. Wait until you see PS C:\...> before the next command.**

• Seen the tool list

Step 2 · Install uv (runs Python MCP servers) (⏱ 0:10–0:20)

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

Close and reopen PowerShell, then:

uvx --version

You should see uv 0.x.x or similar.

• uvx works

Step 3 · Add an MCP server: fetch (⏱ 0:20–0:30)

cd $HOME\agent-night
claude mcp add fetch -- uvx mcp-server-fetch
claude mcp list

You should see a line like:

fetch: uvx mcp-server-fetch - ✓ Connected

(The first check can take 30 s while uv downloads the server.)

• fetch shows Connected

Step 4 · Use it (⏱ 0:30–0:50)

claude

Type (swap in any page you care about):

Use the fetch MCP tool to read https://ollama.com/library/qwen3.8 and write
summary.md with 5 bullet points plus a "Source:" line with the URL.

Approve the tool use when asked. Inside Claude, type /mcp to see the server and its tools. Then **type /exit and press Enter. Wait until you see PS C:\...> before the next command.** Then check:

Get-Content summary.md

You should see 5 bullets and the Source line.

• summary.md has 5 bullets and a source

Step 5 · Who can do what? (⏱ 0:50–1:05)

Run claude and type:

What exactly can the fetch tool do and not do? Could it read my files or send email?

Write the answer in one line: fetch can but can't .

Then **type /exit and press Enter. Wait until you see PS C:\...> before the next command.**

• One-line scope written

Step 6 · Tidy up (optional) (⏱ 1:05–1:15)

To remove a server:

claude mcp remove fetch

(Keep it for now if you like; later lessons can use it.)

✅ Pass check

• claude mcp list shows the server Connected
• summary.md exists with 5 bullets and a source URL
• Told Skills Coach so 5.2 gets marked done

Troubleshooting