# claude.ai connectors

claude.ai connectors (Zoom, Dropbox, GitHub, Google Calendar, and the rest you add on claude.ai) work
inside your admin chat once they are authorised for this Real Agent client. This page explains how the agent
can find a connector you have not added yet, why a connector you already added can still say it needs
authentication, and how to fix both without leaving the chat.

## Asking for a connector by name

You can ask the agent to use a connector you added on claude.ai by name — "can we connect my Zoom
account?", "save this to Dropbox", "check my Microsoft 365 calendar". The agent knows which connectors
are loaded for this client and whether each one is ready or still needs the one-off authentication
below, so it will reach for the connector rather than telling you it has no such integration. If a
connector you added is not yet authenticated for this client, the agent offers you the authentication
step straight away instead of dead-ending.

## Finding a connector you have not added yet

You can also ask for a connector you have never added — "do you work with Stripe?", "can you connect
Notion?", "is there a Linear integration?". claude.ai keeps a directory of managed connectors, hundreds
of them, and the agent can search it by name. So instead of telling you it has no such integration, the
agent looks the connector up and tells you whether it exists and how to turn it on.

1. The agent searches the directory for the connector you named.
2. If it is there, the agent names it and gives you a claude.ai link that enables that exact connector.
3. Open the link, enable the connector on claude.ai, and complete its sign-in.
4. Tell the agent you have enabled it. The connector flows through to your chat on its own — the agent
   confirms your chat picked it up and proves it with one live read, so you can see it actually works.

If the connector is not in the directory, the agent says so plainly and offers you the generic Real Agent
connector instead, which registers an ordinary REST API with credentials Real Agent holds. The agent never
invents a connector that the directory does not list.

## Why a connector can still need authentication

A claude.ai connector is authorised per client, not per account. Approving a connector in the
claude.ai web app authorises the web app only. Your Real Agent admin chat is a separate client, so the first
time it uses a connector that client has to be authorised too. This is a one-off step per connector.

That is why some connectors work straight away while a newly added one does not. A connector you used
before was already authorised for this client; a brand new one has only been approved in the web app.

## How to authenticate one from the chat

When the agent tries a connector that has not been authorised for this client, it will tell you the
connector needs authentication and hand you a link. You do not need a terminal and you do not need to
run anything yourself.

1. The agent gives you an authorisation link.
2. Open the link and approve the connector on claude.ai (sign in with the same account you use for
   your connectors).
3. Tell the agent you have approved it.
4. The agent reconnects your chat session. Send your next message and the connector is ready to use.

If a connector still reports that it needs authentication after you have approved it and the session
has reconnected, that is unexpected. Tell your installer so they can look into it.

## Who owns work that depends on a connector

Because a connector is authorised per client, and your admin chat is the client that holds it, only the
admin session can see a connector-backed surface. A specialist the admin spawns to do a subtask is a
separate, short-lived client with a fixed tool set that does not include your connectors, so it cannot
see them at all.

This matters most for your calendar. When a session holds connector tools, your real calendar often
lives on a connector (Google Calendar, Microsoft 365). The admin session sees it; a specialist does
not. So the admin session is the one that answers what is on your calendar, judges whether you are free,
and makes any booking that affects your availability, rather than handing that to a specialist that
would answer from the built-in calendar alone and miss the connector. A specialist still helps with
mechanical calendar chores the admin hands it with the facts already worked out, such as turning named
events into a calendar file. The same rule holds for any other connector: the admin session is the seat
that reasons over it.

A session that holds no connector tools cannot use a connector at all, and a connector is per client, so
a client sub-account session can never hold one. Such a session must not recommend connecting a
claude.ai connector for the calendar. Its calendar capability is the internal scheduling calendar
(`schedule-event`, `schedule-list`, and the rest) for live create and manage, plus a one-time
`schedule-archive-ics` import that pulls an existing Google, Outlook, or Apple calendar into the graph
from an `.ics` export. Full live per-account Google Calendar integration is planned;
until it ships, the internal calendar plus `.ics` import is the calendar path for a no-connector seat.

## What this is not

This is about Anthropic's claude.ai connectors, which authenticate per client. It is separate from the
Real Agent connector plugin, which registers ordinary REST APIs with credentials Real Agent holds. The two are
unrelated.