Connectors let Claude read your email, calendar and files, and act inside them, so you stop copying and pasting between tabs. That's useful, and it's also an AI with access to your accounts. This guide sets them up the safe way: Claude reads and drafts, you review and send.
1Pick only the connectors you need
Each connector is a door into one of your accounts. Connect a tool only when you have a weekly job for it.
| Connector | Use it for | Plans |
|---|---|---|
| Google Calendar | Morning brief, meeting prep | All plans, per Anthropic's help center |
| Google Drive | Finding files, adding docs to a Project | All plans, per Anthropic's help center |
| Gmail | Inbox triage, follow-up drafts | All plans, per Anthropic's help center |
| Slack | Catching up on channels and decisions | Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise |
| Notion | Notes, docs and lightweight CRM pages | Check its listing in the directory |
| Microsoft 365 | Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams, if you're on Microsoft | All plans, but it needs a work or school account and a Microsoft admin's consent |
Some older Anthropic docs pages list the Google connectors for paid plans only. If one is missing in your account, that's likely why.
2Connect your first one
- Go to Customize → Connectors (claude.ai/customize/connectors). In the desktop app, click Customize in the sidebar.
- Browse or search the directory and open the connector's page.
- Check its label. Verified connectors have a checkmark: Anthropic tested them, but that isn't a security audit. Community connectors had a lighter screening. Only connect ones from companies you trust.
- Click Connect to Claude, sign in to the service, read the access it asks for, and approve.
- It now shows under Your connectors as Connected.
To use it, open a chat, click + in the message box, choose Connectors, and switch on only the ones this chat needs. On Team and Enterprise plans, an owner has to add a connector for the organization first.
Anthropic's walkthrough: Use connectors to extend Claude's capabilities. Google details: Use Google Workspace connectors.
3Set permissions before you use it
Open the connector under Customize → Connectors and find Tool permissions. For each group of tools, or each single tool, you choose Always allow, Needs approval or Blocked. When Claude asks mid-chat, you'll see Allow once or Always allow: pick Allow once for anything that writes.
| What Claude can do | Our setting |
|---|---|
| Search and read email, events and files | Always allow |
| Create email drafts | Needs approval |
| Send, reply to or forward email | Blocked |
| Create, change or delete calendar events | Needs approval |
| Share, move or trash Drive files | Blocked |
| Post messages in Slack | Blocked |
Per Anthropic's help center, the Gmail connector can send, reply and forward, and the Drive connector can share and trash files. By default, Claude asks before each of these. Blocking them is the least-privilege choice: you can always send the draft yourself.
If your message box has a permission setting (part of the new Claude experience), keep it on Manual, the default, so Claude asks before taking actions.
4Get a morning brief
Turn on Calendar and Gmail in a new chat, then paste:
Using my Google Calendar and Gmail, read only. Don't send, change or delete anything. 1. Today's meetings: time, who, and the one thing I should know walking in. 2. Emails from the last 24 hours that need a reply from me, grouped as investors, customers, team, other. One line each on why it matters. 3. Anything due in the next 7 days. 4. My top 3 priorities today, given this week's goal: [goal]. Cite the email or event for every item. Skip newsletters and notifications.
On paid plans, you can ask Claude to run this on a schedule, for example every weekday at 8 AM. Scheduled tasks run in the cloud, even with your laptop closed. Automate your week covers the setup.
5Prep meetings and draft follow-ups
I'm meeting [name] from [company] at [time]. Search my Gmail and Calendar for every past thread and meeting with them. Give me: how we met, what they asked for, what I promised, open questions, and 3 smart questions to ask. Cite each source. Then search the web for their last 12 months of public news, and label that section clearly as web results.
For each meeting I had today with someone outside [company domain]: write a follow-up of under 120 words that thanks them, recaps what we agreed with owners and dates, and gives one clear next step. Save each one as a Gmail draft. Do not send anything. Then list the drafts you created so I can review them in Gmail.
Read every draft before you send it. Check names, dates, numbers, and anything you didn't actually agree to.
6Find a file or a past decision
Try prompts like these with Drive or Slack switched on:
- "Find the newest version of our pitch deck in Drive and tell me when it last changed."
- "Which docs in Drive mention [customer name]? List them with links."
- "What did the team decide about [topic] in #[channel] last week?"
For Google tools, Claude's answers cite the emails, events and files it used, so you can open the original. Two limits: Claude reads the text in Drive files, not images inside them, and Gmail gives it attachment details but not the attachment's contents.
7Review your connections every month
Anthropic says it doesn't train its models on raw content from your Gmail, Drive or Calendar connectors. Content you copy into a chat follows your normal privacy setting.
What's next
Give these connectors a home in your company brain Project, put the morning brief on a schedule with Automate your week, or use your inbox and the web together to map your market with Research. Raising now? Plan your outreach with Run the raise.