# Connect Claude to Content Central

Let Claude search and read the Content Central documents you're allowed to see: copy your connector URL from Options, add it to Claude as a custom connector, sign in and allow the connection, then ask your first question. Read-only, with your own permissions.

Product: content-central · Versions: 7.8.10195+ · Audience: user · Time: 10 minutes · Last verified: 2026-10-21

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/content-central/integrations/connect-claude-to-content-central

**At the end of this guide, Claude can search and read the Content Central documents you're allowed to see, and answer questions about them with links back to the originals. It can look, but it can never change anything.**

Content Central calls this **AI Connections**. You connect your own Claude account once, using your own Content Central sign-in, so Claude sees exactly what you can see and nothing more.

## Before you start

- [ ] **Content Central 7.8.10195 or later.** Quickest check: in Content Central, click your name at the top right and choose **Options**. If **AI Connections** is listed under **Security**, your version is new enough. If it isn't, first make sure you're in the new interface (the last item below). Still missing there? [Find your version number](/content-central/administration/find-your-content-central-version) and ask your administrator to [upgrade Content Central](/content-central/administration/upgrade-content-central).
- [ ] **AI Connections is set up and switched on.** Your administrator does this once for everyone, with [their own guide](/content-central/integrations/set-up-ai-connections-for-claude-and-chatgpt). Step 1 shows you whether it's done.
- [ ] **A Claude account that's approved for work documents.** When Claude reads a document for you, the document's text is sent to Claude. Not sure your organization allows that? Ask first.
- [ ] **A Claude plan that allows custom connectors.** Any plan does; the free plan allows one. If you use Claude through work on a Team or Enterprise plan, your organization's Claude Owner adds Content Central first (step 2 explains).
- [ ] **Your own Content Central sign-in**, plus your multi-factor code or single sign-on if you normally use them. Guest accounts and integration service accounts can't connect.
- [ ] **The new interface.** AI Connections is only in the new interface. If you land on the older Classic pages when you sign in, [here's why, and how to change it](/content-central/getting-started/the-new-interface-and-classic-view).

## Step 1: Copy your connector URL from Content Central

1. In Content Central, click your name at the top right and choose **Options**.

2. In the list on the left, under **Security**, choose **AI Connections**.

3. Click **Copy URL**. The button changes to **Copied**.
   
   **What you should see:** a green **ENABLED** badge next to **Connect your AI app**, and an address that starts with your Content Central address and ends in `/api/claude/mcp`. A message instead of the address usually means your administrator hasn't finished setting up; find it in [When something goes wrong](#when-something-goes-wrong).

*[Screenshot: Security > AI Connections in the list on the left; on the right, the ENABLED badge and your connector URL with Copy URL beside it. Your address will be your own Content Central's, not documents.example.com.]*

## Step 2: Add Content Central to Claude

A *custom connector* is Claude's name for another system it can look things up in. You add one in Claude, in your browser at claude.ai or in the Claude desktop app.

> **NOTE:** **Using Claude through work, on a Team or Enterprise plan?** You can't add custom connectors yourself. Your organization's Claude Owners can (on Enterprise, so can people whose role includes *Manage access to Libraries*). Send them this guide and the connector URL from step 1 (it's the same for everyone): they open **Organization settings** > **Connectors**, click **Add**, then **Custom** > **Web**, and fill in the same details as below. After that, you open **Customize** > **Connectors**, find **Content Central** (it usually has a **Custom** label), click **Connect**, and go to step 3.

1. Open **Customize** > **Connectors** (older Claude screens call it **Settings** > **Connectors**).

2. Click **+ Add**, then **Add custom connector**. (On some screens it's **Add**, then **Custom** > **Web**.)

3. Name it `Content Central`, paste the URL you copied as the server URL, and click **Continue**. Claude checks the address and shows the settings it found; click **Continue** again.

4. Under **Authentication**, choose **Sign in now**. Under **OAuth client**, choose **Use Claude's published identity (Recommended)**. Leave **Request headers** empty; there's no key or password to type here.

5. Click **Add**. Claude opens Content Central in a new window or tab.

Claude's screens change from time to time. If yours don't match these steps, follow [Anthropic's guide to custom connectors](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11175166-get-started-with-custom-connectors-using-remote-mcp) for this step, then come back for step 3.

## Step 3: Sign in to Content Central and allow the connection

Content Central gives you 10 minutes from the moment it opens to click **Allow connection**.

1. If Content Central asks you to sign in, use your *Content Central* username and password (not your Claude ones), plus your multi-factor code or single sign-on as usual. If you're already signed in, it goes straight to the next screen.
   
   Nothing opened? Allow pop-ups for claude.ai, then in Claude open **Customize** > **Connectors** and click **Connect** next to **Content Central**.

2. **Scroll down** past the **Connect your AI app** box to **Connect Claude?**. It spells out what you're agreeing to: "Allow Claude to search documents you can view and read their searchable text and metadata."

*[Screenshot: It sits below the Connect your AI app box, whose last lines show at the top here. Allow connection approves; Cancel tells Claude you declined.]*

3. Click **Allow connection**.
   
   > important: **Unless you signed in within the last 15 minutes, you'll see this next, and it's expected.** A red box appears at the *top* of the page: **Unable to complete this request**, "Sign in again before connecting your AI app or changing its settings.", `Error code: RECENT_AUTHENTICATION_REQUIRED`. Content Central wants a fresh sign-in before any app connects (being signed in automatically with **Keep me logged in** doesn't count). Click **Sign in again**, sign in, scroll back down, and click **Allow connection** once more.

4. Content Central sends you back to Claude. If you started in the Claude desktop app, the browser may land on claude.ai; close that tab and go back to the app.

**What you should see:** you're back in Claude. The sure sign it worked is in Content Central: **Options** > **AI Connections** now lists **Claude** under **Your connections**.

> **NOTE:** Took longer than 10 minutes? Content Central shows "The connection request expired or was already used." **Try again** won't fix that one. In Claude, open **Customize** > **Connectors** and click **Connect** next to **Content Central** to start over.

## Step 4: Ask your first question

1. Start a new chat in Claude. Click **+** at the lower left of the message box, choose **Connectors**, and switch **Content Central** on. The switch is per conversation, so turn it on in each chat where you want it.

2. Ask in plain words, the way you'd ask a colleague. For example:
   
   - "Find this year's invoices from [a vendor you work with] and list their amounts."
   - "Summarize the most recent contract with [a customer]."
   - "Compare the two latest quotes for [a project]."

**What you should see:** Claude searches Content Central, reads what it needs, and answers with links to the documents it used. A link opens the document in Content Central in your browser, which may ask you to sign in first.

If Claude asks before using a Content Central tool, allowing it is safe: every Content Central tool can only search and read. Once connected, Content Central is also available when you use the Claude apps for iPhone and Android with the same account.

## What Claude can and can't see

- **Only your documents.** Claude finds and reads only what you can already open in Content Central.
- **Never documents that ask for a reason.** Document types that ask you for a reason before opening are left out entirely.
- **Read-only.** Claude can't file, edit, approve, move, or delete anything.
- **On the record.** Every search Claude runs and every document it reads is recorded in Content Central's activity log under your name, as a search or a document view. (The words it searched for aren't stored.)
- **Check before you act.** Claude can misread a document. Before you pay, approve, or send anything based on its answer, open the linked document and check.

## Disconnect

In Content Central, open **Options** > **AI Connections** and click **Disconnect** next to **Claude** under **Your connections**. Claude loses access straight away. To tidy up Claude as well, remove **Content Central** under **Customize** > **Connectors**.

Your Claude and ChatGPT connections are separate. Disconnecting one doesn't touch the other.

## When something goes wrong

| What you see | What it means | What to do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| No **AI Connections** under **Options** > **Security** | Your Content Central is older than 7.8.10195, or you're on the older Classic pages | See [The new interface and Classic view](/content-central/getting-started/the-new-interface-and-classic-view); if it's still missing in the new interface, ask your administrator to [upgrade](/content-central/administration/upgrade-content-central) |
| No **Add custom connector** in Claude | You're on a Team or Enterprise plan, or your free plan already has its one custom connector | Ask your Claude Owner to add Content Central, or remove your other custom connector |
| **Installation setup required** on the AI Connections page | AI Connections hasn't been set up on your server | Send your administrator [their setup guide](/content-central/integrations/set-up-ai-connections-for-claude-and-chatgpt) |
| **Connections are currently disabled** | Your administrator hasn't switched AI Connections on, or has switched it off | Ask your administrator |
| **Connector service unavailable**, **The connector is temporarily unavailable**, or **AI Connections setup is unavailable** | Something on the server needs attention | Tell your administrator |
| **Connect your AI app using a personal Content Central account** | You're signed in with a guest account or an integration service account | Sign in with your own account |
| Claude can't add Content Central or can't reach it | Your Content Central isn't reachable from the internet, which Claude needs | Ask your administrator |
| **The connection request expired or was already used** | More than 10 minutes passed, or the request was already used | In Claude, click **Connect** next to **Content Central** to start over |
| "Open Content Central using its configured public HTTPS address, then reconnect from your AI app." | Content Central opened at a different address from the one it's set up with | Start over from Claude; if it happens again, tell your administrator |
| It worked before, but now Claude can't use Content Central or asks you to connect again | Your Content Central password changed, your administrator now requires multi-factor sign-in and you haven't set it up yet, the connection went unused for about three months, or your administrator switched AI Connections off | Once your administrator confirms AI Connections is on, connect again from Claude. Then, under **Your connections**, **Disconnect** the older **Claude** entry (the earlier date) if it still has a **Disconnect** button |
| A document you expected isn't found | It's outside your permissions, or its type asks for a reason before opening | Check whether you can open it in Content Central yourself |
| Claude says a document has no readable text | Content Central has no searchable text stored for it; for a scan, that usually means it was never made text-searchable | For scans, ask your administrator to [make them searchable](/content-central/search-and-find/make-already-captured-documents-text-searchable) |

Still stuck? Ask your Content Central administrator, and include your Content Central version, that you're using Claude (and which Claude plan), the exact message or a screenshot, and roughly when it happened.

## What's next

- [Connect ChatGPT to Content Central](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/integrations/connect-chatgpt-to-content-central)
- [Set up AI Connections for Claude and ChatGPT](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/integrations/set-up-ai-connections-for-claude-and-chatgpt)
- [Find your Content Central version](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/administration/find-your-content-central-version)