Executive Summary

Claude is Anthropic's flagship AI assistant, available across the Claude 4.5 model family including Claude Opus 4.5 (the most intelligent), Claude Sonnet 4.5 (best for coding and agents), and Claude Haiku 4.5 (fastest with near-frontier performance). These models are available via claude.ai, the Claude mobile/desktop apps, the Claude API, and Claude Code (a command-line agentic coding tool).

The January 2026 release of MCP Apps transforms Claude from a conversational assistant into a workplace command center. Users can now interact with Slack, Figma, Asana, and other business tools directly within Claude's interface—drafting messages, creating diagrams, and managing projects without switching tabs.

Model Comparison

Choose the right Claude model based on your use case:

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

MCP is Anthropic's open-source standard for connecting AI assistants to external tools. Open-sourced in late 2024 and donated to the Linux Foundation in 2025, MCP has become an industry standard adopted by OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google.

How MCP Works

MCP servers act as bridges between Claude and external services. Each server exposes tools, resources, and prompts that Claude can use:

• Tools: Functions Claude can execute (e.g., send Slack message, create Asana task)
• Resources: Data Claude can read (e.g., Figma designs, Slack conversations)
• Prompts: Pre-built workflows exposed as slash commands

Integration Guide: Slack

The Slack MCP integration allows Claude to draft messages, search conversations, preview formatting, and send communications—all within the Claude interface.

Setup (Claude.ai)

Available on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans:

1. Navigate to Settings → Connectors → Slack
2. Authenticate with your Slack workspace via OAuth
3. Grant requested permissions for channel access and messaging

Setup (Claude Code)

# Add Slack MCP server
claude mcp add --transport http slack https://mcp.slack.com/sse

# Authenticate via interactive prompt
/mcp

Business Use Cases

• Draft team announcements: "Draft a Slack message announcing our Q1 results to #general"
• Summarize conversations: "Summarize the key decisions from yesterday's #engineering discussion"
• Cross-platform workflows: "Create an Asana task from the action items in this Slack thread"

Integration Guide: Figma

Claude's Figma integration enables visual collaboration directly in chat. Turn text descriptions into diagrams, flowcharts, and Gantt charts within FigJam—previewing and iterating in real-time.

Setup

# Claude Code setup
claude mcp add --transport http figma https://mcp.figma.com/mcp

# Claude.ai: Settings → Connectors → Figma → Connect

Business Use Cases

• Process visualization: "Create a flowchart showing our customer onboarding process"
• Project timelines: "Generate a Gantt chart for our Q2 product roadmap"
• Architecture diagrams: "Visualize our microservices architecture based on this description"

Integration Guide: Asana

The Asana integration transforms conversations into actionable project management. Create projects, build timelines, assign tasks, and visualize progress—all through natural language commands.

Setup

# Claude Code setup
claude mcp add --transport sse asana https://mcp.asana.com/sse

# Claude.ai: Settings → Connectors → Asana → Connect

Business Use Cases

• Project creation: "Create a project for our website redesign with milestones for design, development, and QA"
• Task breakdown: "Break down the API integration feature into subtasks and assign to the engineering team"
• Status updates: "Update all tasks in the Sprint 5 project to reflect our standup discussion"

Claude Code: Developer Deep Dive

Claude Code is an agentic command-line tool that brings Claude's capabilities directly to your terminal. It excels at long-horizon coding tasks, with Sonnet 4.5 capable of 30+ hours of continuous autonomous operation.

MCP Configuration Best Practices

Scope Selection

Enterprise Configuration

For centralized IT control, deploy a managed-mcp.json file that users cannot override:

// managed-mcp.json (deployed by IT)
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "slack": { "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.slack.com/sse" },
    "asana": { "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.asana.com/sse" },
    "figma": { "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.figma.com/mcp" }
  }
}

Combine with allowedMcpServers and deniedMcpServers in managed-settings.json for granular access control.

Tips & Tricks for Business Users

# Toggle servers via @mention or /mcp command
# Use /context to monitor context window usage

Performance Benchmarks

Availability & Access

MCP integrations are available on:

• Claude.ai: Pro ($20/mo), Max ($100–200/mo), Team, and Enterprise plans
• Claude Code: All subscription tiers (configure via CLI)
• Claude API: Via mcp_servers parameter in API calls
• Platforms: AWS Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI, direct API