Connect Claude to the tools you already run on

The Claude app calls a connection a connector. The technical name is MCP. Once a tool is connected, Claude can use it in any chat you switch it on in, and what it does there is done as you.

Connectors do two kinds of thing:

• Read: look at events, files or messages. Nothing changes.
• Act: create, send, change or delete. A painter's calendar could lose a booking. A store's shared folder could lose a price list.

Start with reading. Most of what an owner wants from Claude, like "what's on this week" or "find last spring's quote for the kitchen job", needs nothing more.

Never connect:

• Anything that moves money or keeps your books: your bank, your card reader, payments, payroll, or your accounting or invoicing software.
• Your password manager.
• Anything that can take your business down, like your website hosting, your domain or your booking system's settings.
• Customer records you'd have to answer for, like a client list or patient notes, unless whoever owns them says yes.
• A connector from a company you don't know. Claude marks the ones Anthropic hasn't reviewed in depth Community.

Mail has its own lesson later in this part, with its own rules. Leave it off today. And never paste a password, key or token into a chat. If a service asks for one, you type it on that service's own page.

1. Write down the tools your business runs on.
2. Next to each, write read, act or never.

MCP Short for Model Context Protocol. It's a standard way to connect Claude to other apps and services, so it can read from them or work in them. All words×folder A place on your computer that holds files and other folders, like a drawer in a filing cabinet. All words×password manager An app that remembers a different strong password for every account, so you only remember one. All words×hosting A company's computers that keep your site or app running on the internet, so people can reach it. All words×domain Your website's name on the internet, like gethomebydark.com. You rent it by the year from a company called a registrar. All words×

Pick the one you use most: Google Calendar if your days run on bookings, Google Drive if they run on quotes, price lists and paperwork. Use the same one in every step after this.

1. In your browser, go to claude.ai/customize/connectors. In the Claude desktop app, click Customize in the sidebar, then Connectors.
2. Click Discover, type Google Calendar or Google Drive in Search connectors, and click it. If it's already under Your connectors, click it there.
3. Click Connect. On some pages the button says Connect to Claude.
4. Sign in to Google with your business account. Read what Claude is asking to see, then approve it.

browser The app you use to visit websites, like Safari or Chrome. All words×

Every connector comes with a list of things Claude can do through it, called tools. Anthropic's help page lists what each Google connector can do, and the list changes. When this lesson was written, in October 2026, the Google Calendar connector could also create, change and delete events, and the Google Drive one could create and copy files. The help page also lists sharing, moving and trashing Drive files. Check what yours can do today.

1. On Customize > Connectors, click your connector under Your connectors.
2. Read the list under Tool permissions.
3. For anything that creates, changes, moves, shares, deletes or responds, choose Blocked.
4. Set the tools that only read to Needs approval for now, so Claude asks you first. Reading tools on Always allow are fine, and a scheduled task needs them, as the inbox watcher shows.
5. Never set a tool that sends, changes or deletes to Always allow.

scheduled task A job Claude does on its own on a schedule, like every morning, even when your computer is closed. All words×inbox watcher A scheduled task in the Claude app that reads your new mail each morning and tells you what needs you. It changes nothing. All words×

This message asks one plain question your calendar or your Drive can answer, and tells Claude to stop if it needs anything more than reading.

1. Start a new chat in the Claude app or at claude.ai.
2. If there's a button under the message box, on the right, that says Manual or Auto, click it and pick Manual, so Claude asks before it uses a tool.
3. Click + at the lower left of the message box, then Connectors, and switch on your connector.
4. Copy the message below.

Using the calendar or Drive connector switched on in this chat, answer one question. If it's my calendar, tell me what I've got on tomorrow. If it's my Drive, list the five files I worked on most recently. Only read. Don't create, change, move, share or delete anything, and don't ask to. If you need a tool that does more than read, stop and tell me instead.

5. Paste it into the chat with Cmd+VCtrl+V and press Enter.
6. If Claude asks to use the connector to read or search, choose Allow once. For anything else, choose Deny. Never choose Always allow for a tool that sends, changes or deletes.
7. Open your calendar or Drive yourself and check one thing Claude named is really there.

Every connection is a door into one of your accounts. Close the ones you aren't using. A scheduled task can use any connector you have connected, so this matters more once something runs on its own. The inbox watcher, two lessons on, connects your mail the same way.

1. Go back to claude.ai/customize/connectors and click your connector under Your connectors.
2. Click Disconnect.

Switching it off in one chat's + menu only covers that chat. Disconnecting covers everything.