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How AI plugs into your work

Connectors, plugins & MCP

Connectors bridge Claude to your tools. Plugins/extensions add capability where you work. And MCP — the open standard underneath — means once you get the pattern, you can connect almost anything.

If you only memorise the connectors we set up, you’ll be stuck the moment you need a new tool. This explainer gives you the model, so you can connect anything.

The three words, plainly

  • Connector — a ready-made bridge to a popular service (Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Slack). Flip it on, authorise, done.
  • Plugin / extension — capability added to where you work, like Claude in Chrome acting in your browser.
  • MCP (Model Context Protocol) — the open standard underneath it all. An MCP server is a small adapter that exposes a tool’s data and actions to Claude in a way it understands. Connectors are essentially friendly MCP servers with the setup done for you.

Why this matters

Once you grasp MCP, the question is never “can Claude use this tool?” — it’s “is there an MCP server / connector for it, and am I cleared to connect it?” That’s the difference between a user and someone who’s genuinely AI-powered.

How to connect something new

  1. Check Claude’s connector directory first — most common tools are one click.
  2. If not listed, look for a remote MCP server for that tool (Pro/Max/Team/Enterprise).
  3. Add it, authorise, and test with a small read-only request before trusting it with actions.

The portability principle

MCP is an open standard — it isn’t Claude-only. The structure you learn here (connect data, give clear context, delegate with guardrails) ports to any AI tool that speaks it. We teach on Claude because it’s the best place to learn the pattern.

The connectors we set up

Claude in Chrome

Extension · Wk 7

Claude can see and act in your browser — reading pages, clicking, and filling out forms — so it does the web admin you hate.

  • “Fill out this supplier onboarding form from our company details.”
  • “Read this article and add the key points to my notes.”

Google Calendar

Connector · Wk 3

Claude can see your schedule — the trigger for the daily triage briefing and automatic pre-meeting research.

  • “What's on today, and who am I meeting that I should prep for?”
  • “Research the attendees of my 2pm and brief me.”

Gmail

Connector · Wk 3

Claude can read, search, and draft from your inbox — the foundation of email triage and a connected second brain.

  • “Triage this morning's inbox and draft the three replies that need me.”
  • “Find every thread with Acme about pricing and summarise where we landed.”

Google Drive

Connector · Wk 3

Claude can search and read your Docs, Sheets, and Slides — so it answers from your real documents, not the open web.

  • “Pull the latest pricing sheet and tell me the enterprise tier.”
  • “Find our onboarding SOP and turn it into a checklist.”

Slack

Connector · Wk 3

Claude can catch up on channels and threads, so you walk into the day knowing what happened without scrolling.

  • “Catch me up on #project-atlas since yesterday.”
  • “What decisions were made in the launch channel this week?”

Meeting Transcripts

Connector · Wk 3

Every meeting becomes durable memory — searchable, summarised, and turned into actions automatically.

  • “Summarise my last meeting and list the action items with owners.”
  • “What did we promise the client across our last three calls?”

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