MCP setup · Anthropic
How to add an MCP connector to Claude.ai
Claude.ai is the first surface here with no config file to edit. Custom connectors are remote MCP servers added through settings, and on Team and Enterprise plans only owners can add them — which makes this the one surface in this set where the default is centralised rather than per-machine.
How this surface handles MCP
The absence of a file changes the governance question completely. On Claude Code or Cursor, the risk is that every engineer maintains their own invisible configuration. Here, an owner adds a connector at the organisation level and members then choose to connect to it — so the set of possible connectors is bounded by an administrative action rather than by what each person pasted into a file.
Anthropic documents both paths. An individual on a Pro or Max plan adds a custom connector under Customize, then Connectors, choosing to add a custom connector and supplying the remote MCP server URL with optional OAuth credentials. An owner on a Team or Enterprise plan does it under Organization settings, then Connectors, adding a custom web connector with the server URL and optional OAuth. Members subsequently find it under Customize, then Connectors, and click Connect.
Two details are worth carrying into a policy document. Only owners can add connectors on Team and Enterprise plans, which is the centralisation that makes this surface governable. And owners can disable specific tool calls that render interactive connectors from the same organisation settings, which is a finer-grained control than simply allowing or removing a connector.
The honest caveat is that a bounded connector list is not a small risk surface. A remote MCP server added once by an owner is available to everyone in the organisation, so the review that happens at add time is the only review that happens. That is a better place for a review to sit than on two hundred laptops — and it puts more weight on a single decision.
Adding a server
- Individual plans: Customize, then Connectors
Open Customize, then Connectors, choose to add a custom connector, supply the remote MCP server URL, optionally configure OAuth client credentials, and add it. Anthropic documents custom connectors using remote MCP as available on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise, with Free limited to a single connector.
- Team and Enterprise: Organization settings, then Connectors
An owner opens Organization settings, then Connectors, adds a custom web connector with the server URL and optional OAuth credentials. Only owners can add connectors on these plans, which is the control that makes this surface centrally governable.
- Members connect to what the owner added
Once an owner has added it, members find the connector under Customize, then Connectors, and click Connect. They are choosing from an approved set rather than introducing a new one.
- Enable per conversation
Members enable connectors within a conversation from the plus button, then Connectors, using the toggles there. Being connected and being active in a given conversation are different states.
Confirming it actually connected
- Confirm the connector appears in the member view under Customize, then Connectors — an owner-added connector that members cannot see is a permissions problem rather than a URL problem.
- Open a conversation, enable the connector from the plus menu, and confirm its tools are actually offered before assuming the connection succeeded.
- If OAuth was configured, complete the authorisation flow once as a member and confirm it holds. An owner's successful setup does not prove a member's flow works.
Review this before you connect anything
the part the vendor docs will not tell you
A connected MCP server can read what its credential can read and do what its tools can do, and its tool descriptions reach the model as instructions. None of that is visible from a configuration file that parses correctly.
- The owner's review is the only review
Centralised addition means one person's decision propagates to everyone. That is an argument for the review being written down and repeatable, not for it being quick.
- Read the server's tool descriptions before adding
Descriptions are model-facing instructions and reach every member who connects. A poisoned description added once at organisation level has a wider reach here than the same server on one engineer's laptop.
- Establish who the server is authenticating as
OAuth per member and a shared service credential are very different risk objects. The first keeps source-system permissions meaningful; the second gives every member the union of one account's access.
- Re-review on change, since there is no version to pin
A remote MCP server can change its tool set and descriptions at any time and the connector URL stays identical. There is no lockfile here, so a calendar reminder is doing the job a pinned version would do elsewhere.
Organisational controls
- Owner-only connector addition
On Team and Enterprise plans, only owners can add connectors. This is the strongest default in this entire set — every other surface here lets any user add a server to their own machine without asking anyone.
- Disabling specific interactive tool calls
Team and Enterprise owners can disable specific tool calls that render interactive connectors, from Organization settings then Connectors. That is finer-grained than removing a connector outright, and useful when most of a connector is wanted and one capability is not.
- A bounded, reviewable list
Because addition is centralised, the organisation's connector set is enumerable by opening one settings page. That is an inventory — a real one, for this surface — and it is precisely what the file-based surfaces cannot give you.
What this cannot tell you
This is the one surface where the per-machine drift problem largely does not apply, and it is worth saying so rather than manufacturing a gap. What remains is the cross-surface question: the same remote MCP server an owner approved here is very likely also connected to Claude Code, Cursor or Copilot on your engineers' machines, at a different scope, with a different credential, reviewed by nobody. One governed surface does not make a governed organisation.
Frequently asked
- Does Claude.ai have an MCP config file?
- No. Custom connectors are remote MCP servers added through settings rather than declared in a file on disk, which is why the governance model here differs fundamentally from Claude Code, Cursor or Codex.
- Who can add a custom connector on a Team or Enterprise plan?
- Only owners, from Organization settings then Connectors. Members can then connect to what has been added, from Customize then Connectors. That owner-only default is the strongest native control of any surface covered here.
- How do I add a custom connector on a personal plan?
- Open Customize, then Connectors, choose to add a custom connector, enter the remote MCP server URL, optionally supply OAuth client credentials, and add it. Anthropic documents this as available on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise, with Free limited to one connector.
- Can owners restrict part of a connector rather than removing it?
- Yes — Team and Enterprise owners can disable specific tool calls that render interactive connectors from Organization settings, which is more surgical than an all-or-nothing decision about the connector as a whole.
Sources
Every path, key, table and flag on this page was read from Anthropic's own documentation on 2026-07-26. Where a control varies by plan or is changing quickly, this page describes the mechanism rather than asserting a current state.