I built next gen AI Agents with MCP + Claude (STEAL my workflow)
June 23, 2025
AI Summary
5 min readAI Agents with Tools: How to Give Claude Superpowers Through MCP
Riley Brown opens with a provocative reframe: "MCP is kind of a buzzword. It's distracting you from the sauce." What matters, he insists, is giving AI agents tools. The core mechanism is simple: an AI agent is "a model using tools in a loop" — it can spend as much time as it needs, use tools repeatedly, and only output a final result when it's done. This is fundamentally different from a linear automation (if this, then that) because the agent itself decides which tools to use and for how long.
Why Tools Transform What AI Can Do
The power of tools is already proven. Perplexity built a billion-dollar company by adding one tool: search the internet before responding. Cursor became a coding powerhouse by giving Claude tools to search a codebase, search the internet for documentation, and implement features correctly. The same principle applies to marketing: "Boring marketers are surrounding smart AIs with relevant tools so they can create content, copy, and different things like that."
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Introduction: MCP as "Agents with Tools"** - Riley Brown reframes MCP as giving AI agents tools, not a buzzword, and introduces N8N as a visual workflow builder for non-technical users.
- 2 (04:38) **Why Tools Matter: The Perplexity & Cursor Examples** - Riley explains why giving AI agents tools is a game-changer, using Perplexity and Cursor as case studies.
- 3 (07:30) **Docker MCP Toolkit Setup** - Riley walks through the technical setup: using Docker's MCP toolkit to give Claude access to external tools.
- 4 (10:34) **Demo 1: Notion MCP Integration** - Riley demonstrates how Claude can read, write, and comment on Notion pages using MCP tools.
- 5 (16:48) **MCP vs. Claude Artifacts** - Riley compares MCP tools to Claude's built-in Artifacts feature.
- 6 (21:09) **Glyph: The Easiest Workflow Builder** - Riley introduces Glyph, a tool for creating and remixing AI workflows without needing external API keys.
- 7 (23:00) **Using Glyph Workflows via MCP in Claude** - Riley demonstrates how to call Glyph workflows directly from the Claude chat interface using MCP.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
The exact MCP system to make Claude 10x more powerful : https://www.gregisenberg.com/claude-mcp
Join me as I chat with Riley Brown about how to enhance Claude's capabilities with MCPs. He demonstrates practical applications including accessing Notion databases for content creation and using Glyph for automated thumbnail generation. While acknowledging the current setup process is somewhat technical, Riley emphasizes the significant productivity benefits and predicts these integrations will become more streamlined in the near future.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
01:08 - MCP Explained
04:36 -Why MCP’s matter?
08:42 - Docker's MCP Toolkit
10:34 - Notion - Claude MCP Integration
22:56 - Demo of Glyph Workflow for Thumbnail Creation
28:17 - How to be an AI Agent Orchestrator
Key Points:
• Riley explains how to use MCP (Model Context Protocol) to give AI agents like Claude access to external tools
• Demonstrates integration with Notion databases and Glyph workflows through Docker
• Shows how to create automated workflows for content creation and thumbnail generation
• Discusses the importance of providing good examples and context to AI agents
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