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Skills & MCPs

Skill

A skill is a set of instructions you give an assistant. Nothing to install, nothing running on your computer beyond the assistant itself.

MCP server

An MCP server is a separate program that gives an assistant access to something on your computer or in an account: your files, your calendar, your Slack. It runs with whatever access you grant it.

New to these words? Two short definitions are already written out for you, in the glossary: Agent skill · MCP

Why only 20

This page lists 20 skills and MCP servers, not because 20 means anything, but because those are the ones we actually opened, checked the publisher of, and can honestly describe. The public registries linked at the bottom of this page hold thousands of entries; one of them says outright that checking what a listing actually does is somebody else’s job, not its own. We would rather hand you 20 we can vouch for than thousands we cannot.

Skills: start here

A skill needs no install, no Node, no Docker, no API key, and no third party sits between you and your material. These four are the safest way to try any of this.

  • PDF Skill

    No terminal neededOfficialSkill

    Lets Claude read, fill in, and create PDF files inside a conversation: pulling the text out of a scanned report, or filling in a grant application form.

    What it can access
    Reads and writes files you explicitly attach or ask Claude to create in the current conversation or workspace. No network access of its own.
    Security note
    Built and published by Anthropic, so it runs inside Claude's existing safety and data boundaries. It changes what Claude can do with a file, not whether that file is safe to hand to Claude: do not upload a PDF of witness testimony to a red-tier chat plan. See the Claude entry in the tool catalogue.

    Helps: Documentation and monitoring, Legal work and accountability, Researcher or analyst

    See how to installPDF Skill

  • DOCX Skill

    No terminal neededOfficialSkill

    Lets Claude create and edit Word documents with real formatting, tracked changes, and comments, so a report can be drafted or reviewed in place.

    What it can access
    Reads and writes .docx files you attach or ask Claude to create. No network access of its own.
    Security note
    Built and published by Anthropic. Whether it is safe to draft a sensitive document this way still depends entirely on your Claude plan and privacy setting. See the Claude entry in the tool catalogue.

    Helps: Journalist or editor, Communications and campaigns, Legal work and accountability

    See how to installDOCX Skill

  • XLSX Skill

    No terminal neededOfficialSkill

    Lets Claude read, build, and edit real Excel spreadsheets, formulas included, instead of pasting a table in as text.

    What it can access
    Reads and writes .xlsx files you attach or ask Claude to create. No network access of its own.
    Security note
    Built and published by Anthropic. If the spreadsheet holds beneficiary names or exact locations, your Claude plan and privacy setting decide whether this is safe. Check the Claude entry in the tool catalogue first.

    Helps: Researcher or analyst, Grants and operations

    See how to installXLSX Skill

  • PPTX Skill

    No terminal neededOfficialSkill

    Lets Claude build and edit real PowerPoint decks, drafted straight from your notes or a report.

    What it can access
    Reads and writes .pptx files you attach or ask Claude to create. No network access of its own.
    Security note
    Built and published by Anthropic. Keep photos of identifiable people and exact locations out of a deck built this way, unless your Claude plan and privacy setting are confirmed safe for it.

    Helps: Communications and campaigns, Director or leadership

    See how to installPPTX Skill

That is all four skills in this list. Everything below is an MCP server: a separate program, not just instructions, that runs with real access to something you grant it: your files, your calendar, your inbox. There are 16 of them below, four times as many as the skills above, because that is what most of this ecosystem actually builds. More options is not a reason to use more of them: open an MCP server only when a skill genuinely cannot do the job, and read what it asks for first.

MCP servers

Each one below states exactly what it can access and carries our own security note. Read both before connecting anything to a computer that holds sensitive material.

  • Google Drive MCP Server

    No terminal neededOfficialMCP server

    Lets Claude search, read, and create files in your organisation's Google Drive, without you copy-pasting file contents by hand.

    What it can access
    Uses your own Google sign-in (OAuth 2.0). Google states it "inherit[s] the same permissions and data governance controls as the user". It can only see files you personally already have access to, nothing more.
    Security note
    Official, Google-hosted, and permission-inheriting rather than a separate program with its own access: a meaningfully lower-risk pattern than installing a third-party script. Still in Google's Developer Preview as of verification, and requires a Claude Enterprise, Pro, Max, or Team plan. It adds no limits of its own, so it hands Claude read access to whatever your Google account can already see. Review your Drive's sharing settings before connecting.

    Helps: Documentation and monitoring, Legal work and accountability, Grants and operations

    See how to installGoogle Drive MCP Server

  • Google Docs MCP Server

    No terminal neededOfficialMCP server

    Lets Claude read and draft directly into a real Google Doc that colleagues will keep editing afterwards.

    What it can access
    Uses your own Google sign-in (OAuth 2.0); inherits exactly the documents you personally already have access to. Nothing more.
    Security note
    Same official, Google-hosted, permission-inheriting pattern as the Drive server above, and the same caveats: Developer Preview status, a paid Claude plan, and your organisation's own Google sharing settings are what actually control exposure.

    Helps: Journalist or editor, Communications and campaigns

    See how to installGoogle Docs MCP Server

  • Google Sheets MCP Server

    No terminal neededOfficialMCP server

    Lets Claude read from and write to a real Google Sheet, such as a shared grants tracker or a messy data export.

    What it can access
    Uses your own Google sign-in (OAuth 2.0); inherits exactly the spreadsheets you personally already have access to. Nothing more.
    Security note
    Same official, Google-hosted, permission-inheriting pattern as the Drive server above. Check any formula-driven output before other people make decisions from it.

    Helps: Researcher or analyst, Grants and operations

    See how to installGoogle Sheets MCP Server

  • Google Slides MCP Server

    No terminal neededOfficialMCP server

    Lets Claude read and edit a Google Slides deck your team already shares, such as a standing donor or board presentation.

    What it can access
    Uses your own Google sign-in (OAuth 2.0); inherits exactly the presentations you personally already have access to. Nothing more.
    Security note
    Same official, Google-hosted, permission-inheriting pattern as the Drive server above. Keep photos of identifiable people and exact locations out of a deck that will be shared beyond your organisation.

    Helps: Communications and campaigns, Director or leadership

    See how to installGoogle Slides MCP Server

  • Google Calendar MCP Server

    No terminal neededOfficialMCP server

    Lets Claude read your calendar and schedule events, such as grant deadlines and reporting dates.

    What it can access
    Uses your own Google sign-in (OAuth 2.0); can read and create events on calendars you personally already have access to.
    Security note
    Same official, Google-hosted, permission-inheriting pattern as the Drive server above. An event title is an easy place for a real name or location to end up by accident, so write calendar entries as if a wider audience will eventually see them.

    Helps: Grants and operations, Director or leadership

    See how to installGoogle Calendar MCP Server

  • Gmail MCP Server

    No terminal neededOfficialMCP server

    Lets Claude search your inbox and draft emails, such as a reply to a funder or a past grant thread you need to find.

    What it can access
    Uses your own Google sign-in (OAuth 2.0); can read and draft mail in the account you personally sign in with.
    Security note
    Same official, Google-hosted, permission-inheriting pattern as the Drive server above, but a mailbox is one of the most sensitive things an assistant can be given. Connect it only from an account that carries no witness or case correspondence, and read every draft before it is sent.

    Helps: Grants and operations, Communications and campaigns

    See how to installGmail MCP Server

  • Google Chat MCP Server

    No terminal neededOfficialMCP server

    Lets Claude read and post in your organisation's Google Chat spaces, for teams that coordinate in Google Workspace rather than Slack.

    What it can access
    Uses your own Google sign-in (OAuth 2.0); can read and post in Chat spaces you personally already belong to.
    Security note
    Same official, Google-hosted, permission-inheriting pattern as the Drive server above. Treat anything it can read as visible to everyone else who can already see that Chat space.

    Helps: Communications and campaigns, Documentation and monitoring

    See how to installGoogle Chat MCP Server

  • Notion MCP Server

    Needs a terminalOfficialMCP server

    Lets Claude read and update pages and databases in your team's Notion workspace, such as meeting notes or a grants tracker.

    What it can access
    Uses a Notion integration token you create and scope yourself to specific pages or the whole workspace. Notion, not Claude, controls exactly what it can see.
    Security note
    Published by Notion under an MIT licence, from Notion's own GitHub organisation. Scope the integration token to specific pages rather than your whole workspace, especially if any part of that workspace holds sensitive material.

    Helps: Grants and operations, Director or leadership

    See how to installNotion MCP Server

  • Slack MCP Server

    No terminal neededOfficialMCP server

    Lets Claude read and post in your organisation's Slack channels, so it can watch one channel or draft a message for a colleague to check.

    What it can access
    Uses a Slack Bot token you create and scope yourself to specific channels via Slack's own app-permission settings.
    Security note
    Featured in Claude's own official plugin directory (claude.com/plugins), so it met Anthropic's review bar for that listing. Invite the bot only into channels you intend Claude to see, and never a channel used for sensitive source coordination.

    Helps: Communications and campaigns, Director or leadership

    See how to installSlack MCP Server

  • Figma Dev Mode MCP Server

    No terminal neededOfficialMCP server

    Lets Claude see the layout, text, and components of a Figma file you have open, turning a mockup into copy, code, or a written description.

    What it can access
    Runs locally alongside the Figma desktop app, switched on manually in Dev Mode; it only exposes whichever file or selection you have open at the time.
    Security note
    Built and published by Figma itself, and listed in both Claude's official plugin directory and GitHub's MCP registry. Low risk for design files. Do not put a beneficiary's photo or real name into a design file you expose this way.

    Helps: Communications and campaigns

    See how to installFigma Dev Mode MCP Server

  • MarkItDown MCP Server

    Needs a terminalOfficialMCP server

    Converts PDFs, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files into clean text Claude can work with, and with its optional OCR plugin, images and scanned pages too.

    What it can access
    Reads whichever local files or URLs you point it at; the optional OCR-on-images plugin sends image content to whichever AI model you have configured for that step.
    Security note
    Published by Microsoft itself and listed on GitHub's official MCP registry. The base converter runs on your machine. The optional vision-based OCR plugin does not: it sends images to whichever AI model you configure for that step, so only enable it once you know which model that is.

    Helps: Documentation and monitoring, Researcher or analyst

    See how to installMarkItDown MCP Server

  • DeepL MCP Server

    Needs a terminalOfficialMCP server

    Lets Claude translate text or whole documents through DeepL, without switching to a separate translator tab.

    What it can access
    Sends the text you ask Claude to translate to DeepL's API using a DeepL account key you provide; no access to anything else on your machine.
    Security note
    Published by DeepL under an MIT licence, from DeepL's own GitHub organisation. Text sent through it is still subject to DeepL's free-versus-paid data policy, described in the DeepL tool catalogue entry. Use a paid DeepL key for anything sensitive, not the free tier.

    Helps: Journalist or editor, Communications and campaigns

    See how to installDeepL MCP Server

  • Deepgram MCP Server

    Needs a terminalOfficialMCP server

    Lets Claude send audio to Deepgram's speech-to-text engine and get a transcript back, when you need cloud speed rather than a local tool.

    What it can access
    Sends whichever audio file you provide to Deepgram's API using an account key you supply; no access to anything else on your machine.
    Security note
    Published by Deepgram under an MIT licence, from Deepgram's own GitHub organisation. Unlike Whisper on your own computer, this sends audio to Deepgram's servers. Do not use it to transcribe an interview or testimony recording: use the offline whisper-local entry in the tool catalogue for that.

    Helps: Journalist or editor, Documentation and monitoring

    See how to installDeepgram MCP Server

  • ImageSorcery MCP Server

    Needs a terminalCommunityMCP server

    Runs OCR and other computer-vision tasks on images entirely on your own computer, so a photographed document or ID card never leaves it.

    What it can access
    Reads and processes local image files you point it at. Runs locally; does not require sending images to a cloud API.
    Security note
    Not vendor-official, a community project. It is listed on GitHub's official MCP registry, a review-gated directory, and had around 330 GitHub stars as of verification, indicating real independent use. Running locally is genuinely lower-risk than a cloud OCR service for sensitive images, but as with any community server, read what it actually does before running it on a machine that also holds case files.

    Helps: Documentation and monitoring, Researcher or analyst

    See how to installImageSorcery MCP Server

  • Brave Search MCP Server

    Needs a terminalOfficialMCP server

    Lets Claude run live web searches during a conversation, instead of relying only on what it already knows.

    What it can access
    Sends your search queries to Brave's Search API using an API key you provide; does not access local files.
    Security note
    A reference server maintained under the official Model Context Protocol project. Your search queries leave your machine for Brave's servers, so never phrase a search around a witness name or an exact location you are trying to protect.

    Helps: Researcher or analyst, Journalist or editor

    See how to installBrave Search MCP Server

  • Airtable MCP

    No terminal neededOfficialMCP server

    Lets Claude read and update records in your organisation's Airtable bases, such as a grants tracker or a contacts database.

    What it can access
    Uses an Airtable personal access token you create and scope yourself to specific bases; Airtable's own hosted MCP endpoint handles the connection.
    Security note
    Published by Airtable under an MIT licence, from Airtable's own GitHub organisation. Scope the access token to only the bases Claude actually needs, especially if any base holds beneficiary or donor personal data.

    Helps: Grants and operations, Researcher or analyst

    See how to installAirtable MCP

Browse further yourself

If none of the 20 above fit what you need, these are the places to look next, in the order we would try them ourselves:

  1. claude.com/plugins

    The one to try first. Everything here installs from a web page. No terminal, ever.

  2. github.com/mcp

    Every listing names its real publisher and links to real, readable source code.

  3. registry.modelcontextprotocol.io

    The raw index. Anyone can list a server here; nothing on it has been checked by us, or, by its own account, by anyone else. Read carefully before installing anything you find only here.