Use connectors to extend Claude's capabilities (original) (raw)

This guide explains how to enable and use connectors with Claude to enhance its capabilities.

What are connectors?

Connectors let Claude access your apps and services, retrieve your data, and take actions within connected services. Claude inherits each person's permissions from the connected service. If someone can't access a specific file, channel, or record in the source system, the connector can't reach it from Claude either.

For example, you can connect Claude to Linear to create issues, to Slack to send messages, or to Google Drive to search your files. Connectors work across Claude, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and the API (via the MCP Connector).

You can find available connectors in the Connectors Directory, where each connector has a page detailing its use cases, read/write capabilities, and availability. You can also add custom connectors or connect to any service that supports MCP.

How Claude suggests connected apps

Once you've connected an app, Claude can bring it into a conversation on its own when it fits what you're asking for—you don't have to name it every time. For details on how that works, including what happens when more than one app could help, see How Claude suggests connected apps.

Browse available connectors

You can browse the directory from two areas:

From a chat

From settings

Connect a service to Claude

To connect a service from the directory:

Connect a service on Team and Enterprise plans

Before members of Team and Enterprise plans can use connectors, an Owner or Primary Owner needs to enable them for the organization. Enabling a connector makes it available to your team, but it doesn't automatically grant anyone access. Each person still needs to authenticate individually before they can use it.

Once enabled at the org level, individual users follow the same steps described above to connect and authenticate.

Restrict actions within connected services

Owners on Team and Enterprise plans can limit which actions a connected service can take across your organization. For example, you can allow a connector to read data from a service while preventing it from writing any changes back. This applies org-wide to everyone using the connector—individual users can't override it.

Common use cases:

To configure action restrictions:

Use connected services

Once you connect to a service on Claude or Claude Desktop, it will be available to use the next time you log in to your account on Claude for iOS or Android.

Once connected, services become available in your conversations:

For example, after connecting Linear, you can ask Claude to "Create a new issue for the login bug" and Claude will use Linear to create the issue in your workspace.

Some connectors are interactive and can render live interfaces—like dashboards, task boards, and design tools—directly within your conversation. Look for the Interactive badge in the Connectors Directory to find connectors with this capability.

Choose how connectors load in your conversation

When you add many connectors, Claude gives you control over how they load. You can find the Tool access setting by clicking the “+” button in the lower left corner of your chat, or typing “/” to open the menu. Hover over “Connectors,” then “Tool access” to choose your preferred mode. For most users, Auto (the default) works well. If you have 10 or more connectors active, consider switching to On demand to give your conversations more room.

Manage your connectors

To manage your connected services:

Custom connectors

In addition to directory connectors, you can add custom connectors:

Custom connectors connect to your MCP server from Anthropic's cloud, not from your local device. Your server must be reachable over the public internet. If it's behind a firewall or on a private network, see Get started with custom connectors using remote MCP for network requirements and private network options.

Security and privacy

All data transfers are encrypted. When using connectors, you can only sync content to Claude that you have permission to view in the original source.

When connecting to services from the directory, review what access the service is requesting during the connection process. Disconnect services you no longer need or use.

For Team and Enterprise plans:

Troubleshoot connection issues

If you're having trouble connecting to a service, try these steps:

See a message that says, "This corporate identity belongs to an Enterprise that manages access through their own Claude account"?

The service you're trying to connect uses an email address on a domain that an Enterprise organization has verified, and that organization restricts connections to its own Claude accounts only. To use this connection, sign in to your organization's Claude account and connect the service there. If you don't have a Claude account in that organization, contact your admin for access.

Custom connector not connecting or timing out?

Custom connectors (remote MCP servers) are reached from Anthropic's cloud infrastructure, not from your local machine. This is true even if you're using Cowork or Claude Desktop, which run locally on your computer. If your MCP server is behind a corporate firewall, on a private network, or not reachable over the public internet, the connection will fail.

To resolve this, you can either allowlist Anthropic's IP ranges in your firewall to create a secure outbound-only connection from your network. For detailed guidance, see the network requirements section in Get started with custom connectors using remote MCP.

Getting Started with Local MCP Servers on Claude Desktop Get started with custom connectors using remote MCP When to use desktop and web connectors Use interactive connectors in Claude Use plugins in Claude