Learn and master Clay with Clay university

MCP is a widely misunderstood term. For Clay, think of it as the easiest way to give your team the power of your Clay logic, workflows, and enrichments without anyone having to work inside Clay itself. By the end of this lesson, you'll know how MCP differs from the CLI, how to set it up safely, and what reps use it for.

🔐 MCP vs. the API and CLI

The two give very different levels of access.

Someone with API or CLI access can edit workflows, change audiences, and look up new data. That's usually not what you want when someone just needs a phone number or a few contacts.

⚙️ Setting Up MCP

The MCP settings page (MCP is in beta) is where you control what your team can do:

• Default credit limit: applied to new MCP users when they connect a tool like ChatGPT or Claude
• Hide default functions from MCP: hides Clay-managed functions and default enrichment data points from MCP clients
• Allowed MCP clients: which tools your team can connect, from the most popular AI tools
• MCP users: who's connected, with each person's credit limit

Connecting is simple from there.

📱 Example: A Phone Number in the Moment

At scale, you'd find phone numbers with a workflow. MCP is for the moment when you just need one.

1. Copy the person's LinkedIn profile URL.
2. Paste it into your AI tool (Claude here, but ChatGPT or any other connected tool works) and ask: "Can you find me the mobile phone number for this person using Clay enrichment and MCP?"
3. Read the result. The enrichment ran and came back with a contact card.

Check the answer, don't just accept it. Here the number came from a custom research step rather than a phone data provider, and Claude flagged that it might be an old or wrong number. It was a former work phone. For numbers you'll rely on, use a phone waterfall in a workflow, which runs through verified mobile data providers.

💡 More Ways to Use It

When you're not sure what else MCP can do, ask the AI itself. A few of the strongest uses:

• Custom data points for reps. If you've built a workflow or Function for a derived data point, reps can call it through MCP when it's not in the CRM, or when they're finding their own leads.
• Finding people and companies. A rep with only four contacts at an account could ask: "Can you find me any adjacent contacts in the data science division at Figma, ideally based in New York, but open to other locations?" The results come back in a panel like the contact card.

Give MCP to everyone on your team. It's one of the best ways to make sure everyone works from the same picture.

⭐ Prove it → If setting this up for your team is becoming your job, there's a certification for it!

🚀 What's Next

You now know when to hand your team MCP instead of the CLI, how to control it, and how reps use it day to day.

Next, the last bonus lesson: building a Claygent.