MCP Turns Your Digital Clutter Into Professional Gold
AI becomes even more powerful once you can use it to analyze your files, pore over your spreadsheets or create your first drafts in the cloud. That's the power I demonstrated in my AI workshop at last week's Online News Association, a conference of digital journalists and editors from across the US and around the world.
The secret? MCP: Model Context Protocol. MCP lets an AI platform like Claude or ChatGPT talk to other kinds of software. My latest newsletter shares three easy ways to get started...and this page shares six more elaborate examples that give you a taste of what MCP makes possible.
Turn piles of articles into AI answers based on trusted sources
The Big Picture
Instead of hoping that AI will use credible sources when answering a question, connect Claude to Zotero (an academic database) so that it answers your questions based on the sources you pick.
I have a very large collection of academic articles and research notes in Zotero, a bibliographic database. Thanks to Zotero MCP, I can now "talk" to these articles with Claude, instead of trusting GPT or Claude to choose the right sources when answering a question for me like, "What are the arguments in favor of a four-day work week?" Zotero MCP means I can tell Claude to answer my question based on the academic articles in the "4-day week" folder of articles I have personally saved to Zotero. That way I know its answers are based on sources I trust.
Try This Prompt
You're an expert on AI, MCP and Zotero; you are also a coach who explains new tech use cases one step at a time in plain language. A client says: I want to connect my Zotero library to Claude using MCP so I can ask questions and get answers based only on the articles I've saved. Walk me through how to set up Zotero MCP step by step, and then, how to use it in my prompts.
Jump from a daunting task list to ready-to-edit first drafts
The Big Picture
Use AI to read all your project requirements and create first drafts that your team can immediately edit in Google Drive.
While working on a grant application, I gave Claude the five different files that spelled out all the application requirements, and asked it for ideas about how AI could help. Claude offered to read all the notes I had already compiled on the application, and then create a first draft of every single required document. Once I mounted my Google Drive on my local computer, so that my Mac treated my Google Drive just like a local file folder, I was able to use my filesystem MCP to create files directly in my Google Drive, from Claude. Claude generated those first drafts directly in Drive so my collaborators could immediately review and edit those drafts. The drafts were only ok, but simply getting a first draft of a dozen different documents dramatically accelerated our work process.
Try This Prompt
You're an expert on AI, MCP and Google Drive; you are also a coach who explains new tech use cases one step at a time in plain language. A client says: I need to connect Claude to my Google Drive using MCP so it can read PDFs that detail project or grant-application requirements, and then create first drafts of my project or application files directly in my Drive. Show me how to set up filesystem MCP to work with Google Drive, and walk me step by step through how I can use Claude to help me create my first drafts via MCP.
Convert random ideas into actionable pitches
The Big Picture
Stop scrolling through thousands of old ideas—let AI search through your folder or spreadsheet full of story or project ideas, and pick the right ones for any editor or client you're pitching.
So far my favorite use of MCP has come from connecting Claude to Coda, mainly because I do so much of my work in different Coda docs….but if you work in Google Drive, you can get the same benefits from connecting Claude to your Google Drive. For example, I keep a running list of all my article and newsletter ideas, but after ten years of capturing every single goofy idea, it's pretty hard for me to wade through an 1,878-row spreadsheet when I want to find the right story to pitch to a new publication. Now I use my Coda MCP server to give Claude a prompt like, "I'm at ONA25, and I just met the arts editor at a Bay area newspaper. What are five story ideas in my 'Pitch Machine' Coda that have a Silicon Valley vibe and an arts angle? Or ideas that COULD have that angle? One bullet each. Do NOT invent any new story ideas – just work from the items in my Coda (you'll need to use Coda MCP)." Bam! Claude riffles through my Pitch Machine Coda doc and comes back with some very appropriate ideas, angled so they appeal to this imaginary editor.
Try This Prompt
You're an expert on AI, MCP and Coda.io; you are also a coach who explains new tech use cases one step at a time in plain language. A client says: Help me connect Claude to my Coda workspace using MCP so I can search through my ideas database and get tailored suggestions. Walk me through installing and using Coda MCP so that I can query my own notes or tables.
Turn chaotic project files into clear documentation
The Big Picture
Instead of wasting hours trying to reconstruct how you tackled a project or created a tech setup, get AI to read your files and document them for you.
I have a lot of Coda documents that are now so overgrown that I can't exactly remember how they work, and a lot of past projects where I can no longer remember the project plan, research methodology, or technical steps. It's pretty common for me to spend hours or days reconstructing a past project so I can replicate what I've done before, or explain it to someone else—but now, MCP can do that for me. I've used Coda MCP to add an "About this document" page to my most complicated Coda docs: Claude can read through the whole Coda, figure out how it works, and then write an explanation (to a Coda page!) that will make sense for other people.
Try This Prompt
You're an expert on AI, MCP and Coda.io; you are also a coach who explains new tech use cases one step at a time in plain language. A client says: I want to use MCP to let Claude read and document my complex Coda docs so I can remember how they work and share them with other people. Show me how to set up Coda MCP and use it to auto-generate documentation pages.
Transform messy files into organized folders
The Big Picture
Let AI clean up years of digital clutter by automatically sorting and organizing your files into a coherent structure.
When I started "vibe coding" (using AI to write my own programs), it was mostly to create little scripts to clean up the clutter on my computer—for example, combining multiple PDFs into one file or folder. But after more than two years of vibe coding, my scripts have become their own form of clutter! So I used the filesystem MCP to give Claude direct access to the folder where I store all my programming projects; Claude read all my scripts, suggested a way of organizing them, and then reorganized all the files into a new folder structure.
Try This Prompt
You're an expert on AI, MCP and you are also the Marie Kondo of digital file systems; you think about work process and tech side-by-side, and when you coach you go one step at a time in plain language. A client says: I need to set up filesystem MCP so Claude can read, analyze, and reorganize my messy folders. Walk me through installing filesystem MCP and using it safely to restructure directories; include not only the technical how-to, but engage me in a conversation so we can jointly figure out a structure that makes sense, before we get into the how-to of it all.
Protect proprietary work by creating shareable examples
The Big Picture
Share your methods and systems publicly without exposing confidential client work or private ideas; just ask AI to create anonymized or fictionalized versions of your existing files.
I often have tech discoveries I want to share with readers and audiences…but showing my how-to means exposing my own work in progress (like my own story ideas, or my work for clients). As a result, there is a lot that I don't share, just because it's too much work to come up with fake examples. Now, I can use MCP to read my real examples, and then come up with fake hypotheticals. For example, I used Claude to read through the Coda doc where I track all my story ideas, and then generate a parallel list of ideas for a fictional journalist in another field. That way I was able to share my story-tracking system without also sharing my specific ideas.
Try This Prompt
You're an expert on AI, MCP and client service; you are also a coach who explains new tech use cases one step at a time in plain language. A client says: Show me how to use MCP to let ChatGPT read my private work files and generate fictional examples based on them, without putting any client information or proprietary information at risk. I want to share my methods without exposing client data. Specify any privacy-enhancing tweaks I should make to ChatGPT before proceeding, so I can ensure my work won't turn into training data.