# The Best MCP Servers to Start With

> Seven MCP reference servers are still maintained — filesystem, fetch, git, memory, time. GitHub, Postgres, Slack and Puppeteer were archived.

- Canonical: https://guides-ai.pages.dev/guides/best-mcp-servers-to-start/
- Plate 05.03 · Topic: MCP (https://guides-ai.pages.dev/topics/mcp/)
- Published: 21 Aug 2026 · Updated: 06 Sept 2026 · 4 min read
- Source site: guides-ai — https://guides-ai.pages.dev/

Start with the reference servers that are still maintained, not the ones every old blog post
lists. The `modelcontextprotocol/servers` repo now keeps **seven**: Everything, Fetch,
Filesystem, Git, Memory, Sequential Thinking and Time.

## 1. The maintained shortlist

- **Filesystem** — read and write files in folders you explicitly allow. The simplest way to
  hand Claude a project or a notes directory.
- **Fetch** — retrieve a URL and convert it to text the model can read.
- **Git** — repository operations against a local checkout.
- **Memory** — a knowledge-graph store that survives between sessions.
- **Time** — dates and timezone conversion, which models get wrong unaided.

## 2. Check the archive before you install

This is the part that trips people up. **GitHub, PostgreSQL, Puppeteer, Slack, Google Drive,
Google Maps, GitLab, Redis, Sentry, SQLite and Brave Search have all moved to the
`servers-archived` repository.** They still install, but nobody is maintaining them. Where a
first-party replacement exists, use it: GitHub is now a hosted server at
`https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/`, and Brave ships `@brave/brave-search-mcp-server`.

## 3. Add one

```bash
claude mcp add filesystem -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem ~/projects/my-app
```

What it does: registers a stdio server; everything after `--` is the command Claude Code runs
to launch it, and the trailing path is the only directory it may touch.

## 4. Confirm it connected

```text
/mcp
```

What it does: lists every configured server with its health — `✔ Connected`,
`! Needs authentication`, or `✘ Failed to connect` — plus its tool count.

## If it fails

`✘ Failed to connect` on a fresh install is almost always the launch command, not the server —
run the part after `--` in your own shell and read the error. Servers load at session start, so
a change needs a new session.

## Give it the least access that works

An [MCP server](/glossary/#mcp-server) runs with your permissions, and the text its tools return
lands in your prompt. Scope a token to one repo, use a read-only database user, allow a single
folder. Treat tool output as data: a web page should never tell Claude to run a command.

Full walkthrough: [install an MCP server](/guides/install-mcp-server-claude-code/). For GitHub,
see [connect Claude Code to GitHub](/guides/connect-claude-code-to-github/).

Source: [modelcontextprotocol/servers](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers).