Week 3.2: MCP Servers & Tool Integration

Week 3.2 Resources: MCP Servers & Tool Integration

Required Accounts & Services

To follow along with the tool integrations, you will need accounts and API keys for the following services.

ElevenLabs: For AI Voice Generation.
- Get API Key
- Note: You may need to enable “Do not restrict” for the key to work with the MCP server.
Late API: A unified API for social media scheduling.
- Get Late API Key
Zapier: For general automation (Standard account required).
- Zapier MCP Page
Rube: An MCP marketplace and manager (The recommended solution).
- Visit Rube

Terminal Commands (Setup)

Run these commands in your VS Code terminal (PowerShell as Administrator is recommended for Windows users).

1. Install uv (Python Package Manager):


# Windows
irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex
 
# Mac/Linux
curl -lsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

2. Install Python Libraries:


pip install fastmcp
pip install late-sdk[mcp]

3. Install Rube (Final Step in Video):


npx rube add rube --transport http https://rube.app/mcp --scope project

Configuration Files

1. `.env` File Setup

Create a .env file in your root folder and add your keys:


ELEVENLABS_API_KEY=your_key_here
LATE_API_KEY=your_key_here
ZAPIER_API_KEY=your_key_here

2. `.mcp.json` Configuration

If manually configuring the servers (before using Rube), your config file should look like this:


{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ElevenLabs": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["-c", "elevenlabs-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "ELEVENLABS_API_KEY": "insert-your-api-key-here"
      }
    },
    "late": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "late-sdk[mcp]", "late-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "LATE_API_KEY": "insert-your-api-key-here"
      }
    },
    "zapier": {
        "command": "python",
        "args": ["C:/Path/To/Your/zapier_mcp_server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Custom Zapier Server Code

Since the native Zapier implementation often fails, use this custom script. Save this as zapier_mcp_server.py inside an mcp/ folder.


from dotenv import load_dotenv
from fastmcp import FastMCP
import os
import httpx
 
# Load environment variables
load_dotenv()
 
# Initialize FastMCP
mcp = FastMCP("Zapier MCP")
api_key = os.getenv("ZAPIER_API_KEY")
 
@mcp.tool()
async def list_zapier_tools():
    """List all available Zapier actions/tools."""
    headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}"}
    async with httpx.AsyncClient() as client:
        resp = await client.get("https://mcp.zapier.com/api/v1/actions", headers=headers)
        return resp.json()
 
@mcp.tool()
async def call_zapier_tool(tool_name: str, instructions: str):
    """
    Call a specific Zapier tool.
    Args:
        tool_name: The specific name of the action (e.g., 'gmail_send_email')
        instructions: Natural language instructions for the action.
    """
    headers = {
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}",
        "Content-Type": "application/json"
    }
    data = {
        "action_name": tool_name,
        "instructions": instructions
    }
 
    async with httpx.AsyncClient() as client:
        resp = await client.post(
            "https://mcp.zapier.com/api/v1/execute",
            headers=headers,
            json=data,
            timeout=30.0
        )
        return resp.json()
 
if __name__ == "__main__":
    mcp.run()

Class Prompts

Use these prompts to test your agent’s capabilities and reliability.

Discovery (Checking capabilities):


Tell me about your ElevenLabs MCP tools.

The “Bad” Prompt (Ambiguous):


Create content and post it to my notion board.

(Note: This often fails because the agent attempts actions it doesn’t have tools for.)

The “Deterministic” Prompt (High Reliability):


# Inputs
$text: "Hello world"
$timestamp: MM-DD-YY--HH-MM-SS

# Steps
1. Use your text_to_speech tool to create speech that says $text
2. Save the output to media/$timestamp.mp3
3. Truncate the text to 30 characters for the filename

Using Rube for Gmail (Final Demo):


Use Rube MCP tools to send email to info@aidolons.com
- Subject: Hello
- Body: A friendly greeting email

Source Code

The complete source code for Week 3 (including the tools, mcp, workflows, and .claude folders) is available for download.

Download Week 3 Starter Files

After downloading, extract the zip file and create a .env file with your API keys.