Tired of paying for Claude, Warp, GPT, and more? LLMs Meet Your Machine.

Introduction

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a powerful tool that lets large language models (LLMs) access and control external apps and APIs without writing complex code. MCP, created by Anthropic, acts as an intermediary: it handles API calls and authentication, and exposes tools in a simple, LLM-friendly format.

We’ll walk through using MCP with Docker for easy local setup, and I’ll show you how to connect LLMs to apps like Obsidian (note-taking), Toggle (time management), or even a Kali Linux instance (for network scanning). By the end, you’ll see how MCP unlocks automation and supercharges your productivity.

Connect claude with docker

Go to https://www.claude.com/download and click “Download.

Once you have installed Claude, you need to install docker desktop

Open Docker and click on MCP Toolkit.

Click on Clients and then Connect

Click on Catalog and choose any tool you work with!

Add obsidian

Just to make a simple example, I will select Obsidian, which is a note-taking app like Notion but open-source. Click on Add, and that’s all.

Each tool needs a small configuration. I’m going to set up Obsidian, but you can skip this step if you are connecting something else. Go to Settings → Plugins → Community Plugins and install Local REST API.

Go to Settings → Local REST API and copy the API key.

Go to Docker → Catalog → Configuration tab, and paste the API key.

Restart Claude

After you installed some tools, quit Claude and restart it. It is important for Claude to reload your tools.

Open Claude, and you should see a toggle called MCP_DOCKER. Enable it if it’s not, and click on the small arrow to see your connected tools.

You can see I have Obsidian connected. That’s great!

Test your tools

Let’s test our connection!

As you can see, Claude is connecting to our Obsidian. That’s great!

After Claude finishes, let’s check if this worked!

Voilà! That’s great! We have connected Claude with Obsidian through our MCP server. 🎉

Connect LM Studio (local LLMs)

Maybe you are like me, and you prefer to use local LLMs. For this, you can connect LM Studio, which will allow you to choose any open-source, free model locally, offline, and private. Let’s do it.