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Advanced MCP Development: Building Custom Workflow Servers for Claude Code

Welcome to Unit 3! In this unit, we’ll build a practical MCP server that enhances Claude Code with custom development workflows while learning all three MCP primitives.

If you’d like to hear from the creators of MCP, here’s a video they made:

In this video Theo Chu, David Soria Parra and Alex Albert dive into the Model Context Protocol (MCP), the standard that’s changing how AI applications connect with external data and tools.

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What You’ll Build

PR Agent Workflow Server - An MCP server that demonstrates how to make Claude Code team-aware and workflow-intelligent:

- Smart PR Management: Automatic PR template selection based on code changes using MCP Tools
- CI/CD Monitoring: Track GitHub Actions with Cloudflare Tunnel and standardized Prompts
- Team Communication: Slack notifications demonstrating all MCP primitives working together

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Real-World Case Study

We’ll implement a practical scenario every development team faces:

Before: Developer manually creates PRs, waits for Actions to complete, manually checks results, remembers to notify team members

After: Claude Code connected to your workflow server can intelligently:

- Suggest the right PR template based on changed files
- Monitor GitHub Actions runs and provide formatted summaries
- Automatically notify team via Slack when deployments succeed/fail
- Guide developers through team-specific review processes based on Actions results

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Key Learning Outcomes

1. Core MCP Primitives: Master Tools and Prompts through practical examples
2. MCP Server Development: Build a functional server with proper structure and error handling
3. GitHub Actions Integration: Use Cloudflare Tunnel to receive webhooks and process CI/CD events
4. Hugging Face Hub Workflows: Create specialized workflows for LLM development teams
5. Multi-System Integration: Connect GitHub, Slack, and Hugging Face Hub through MCP
6. Claude Code Enhancement: Make Claude understand your team’s specific workflows

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MCP Primitives in Action

This unit provides hands-on experience with the core MCP primitives:

- Tools (Module 1): Functions Claude can call to analyze files and suggest templates
- Prompts (Module 2): Standardized workflows for consistent team processes
- Integration (Module 3): All primitives working together for complex automation

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Module Structure

1. Module 1: Build MCP Server - Create a basic server with Tools for PR template suggestions
2. Module 2: GitHub Actions Integration - Monitor CI/CD with Cloudflare Tunnel and Prompts
3. Module 3: Slack Notification - Team communication integrating all MCP primitives

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Prerequisites

Before starting this unit, ensure you have:

- Completion of Units 1 and 2
- Basic familiarity with GitHub Actions and webhook concepts
- Access to a GitHub repository for testing (can be a personal test repo)
- A Slack workspace where you can create webhook integrations

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Claude Code Installation and Setup

This unit requires Claude Code to test your MCP server integration.

> Installation Required: This unit requires Claude Code for testing MCP server integration with AI workflows.

Quick Setup:

Follow the official installation guide to install Claude Code and complete authentication. The key steps are installing via npm, navigating to your project directory, and running `claude` to authenticate through console.anthropic.com.

Once installed, you’ll use Claude Code throughout this unit to test your MCP server and interact with the workflow automation you build.

> New to Claude Code? If you encounter any setup issues, the troubleshooting guide covers common installation and authentication problems.

By the end of this unit, you’ll have built a complete MCP server that demonstrates how to transform Claude Code into a powerful team development assistant, with hands-on experience using all three MCP primitives.

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