I built a Claude connector for my prompt tool. Here's what I actually learned shipping MCP.
Two months ago I had a working prompt-engineering web app called Meerkat. It turns messy "just do this for me" requests into structured prompts that actually run well. The kind of thing where you type "write something for my launch" and it asks you four sharp questions, then hands you a prompt that works.
Last week I shipped it as a custom connector inside Claude. Same engine, OAuth-secured, five tools (chat, refactor, save, search, list). Submitted to Anthropic for the directory yesterday.
Honest things I learned that nobody told me up front:
1. MCP isn't the hard part. OAuth is. The MCP spec is small and reasonable — define some tools, return JSON. The actual labor is the OAuth 2.0 + PKCE dance Anthropic requires for hosted connectors. RFC 9728 metadata, dynamic client registration, scoped tokens, a real consent screen. If you've never built an OAuth provider, budget more time than you think.
2. Plain-English consent screens convert. I wrote the consent page like a human ("Confirm it's really you," "See your basic profile") instead of OAuth-spec gibberish. Allow rate jumped. Reviewers from Anthropic notice this stuff.
3. Documentation is part of the product. I built a public /docs/claude page and a public-only GitHub repo with just the tool schemas + privacy + setup. The application code stays private. Reviewers want to audit the surface area without seeing your business logic. This made the difference between "submitted" and "credible."
4. Latency is a tax you pay for voice. My web app is tuned against Sonnet 4.6. I could swap to Haiku and shave 3 seconds, but the voice would drift. I kept Sonnet. If your product has tuned model output, don't sell it for speed.
5. Discovery still has to happen inside your product. I shipped the connector and realized none of my logged-in users would ever know — the only mention was on /account. Added a dismissible callout in the workspace and a row in the universal account menu. Don't assume the launch announcement reaches your existing users.
The product is at getmeerkat.dev. Connector URL is https://getmeerkat.dev/api/mcp if you want to drop it into Claude Desktop and tear it apart.
Curious what other folks shipping MCP servers have learned — especially anyone who's been through Anthropic's directory review. How long did approval take?
This is a useful breakdown because it shows the real product work behind “just ship an MCP connector.” The OAuth, consent screen, docs, review surface, and in-product discovery are probably the parts most builders underestimate.
The bigger positioning point is that Meerkat is no longer just a prompt helper if the Claude connector becomes a serious channel. It is moving toward a workflow layer for turning messy intent into usable AI actions across surfaces.
That is where I’d pressure-test the name before the Anthropic directory and more docs/users lock in. Meerkat is friendly and memorable, but it may make the product feel smaller and more playful than the infrastructure/workflow role it is starting to take on.
A cleaner name like Xevoa .com would fit that broader direction better if you want this to feel like a serious AI workflow tool, not just a prompt-polishing app. The product itself does not need to change. The brand shell may just need to match where it is going.