Chapter 10 · Connecting your assistant
Claude on the web
claude.ai in a browser, and the Claude mobile apps. Nothing to install, which makes this the fastest way to try GradWorkbench and the easiest to use from a phone.
It is also the most limited. Web conversations are shorter than a terminal session, so this suits asking about your workspace and researching a professor or two at a time, rather than working through a batch of twenty. For that, use Claude Code.
This needs a paid plan. Custom connectors are available on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise, but free accounts are limited to one connector — and research that gets checked needs two.
Before you start#
You need: A browser, and a paid Claude plan if you want research checked (free plans allow one connector).
You will know it worked when: GradWorkbench appears under + → Connectors in a chat, and can be switched on.
Your workspace address is your app's address with /api/mcp on the end. The block on
Settings → Research Access has yours already filled in, with a copy button — use that
rather than typing it.
Add the connector#
1. Open claude.ai and go to Customize → Connectors in settings. On a Team or Enterprise plan an owner does this at Organization settings → Connectors first, and everyone else then sees it under Customize → Connectors and clicks Connect.
2. Click +, then Add custom connector.
3. Paste your workspace's MCP address:
https://gradworkbench.vercel.app/api/mcp
Ignore Advanced settings. It is for pre-registered OAuth credentials; your workspace registers the connector automatically.
4. Click Add. You will be sent to your workspace to sign in and approve the connection, then returned to Claude.
5. Open a new chat, click + at the bottom left, choose Connectors, and turn GradWorkbench on for that conversation. Connectors are enabled per conversation, which is the step people miss.
There is no key option here — the web app has no field for one. Signing in is the only path, and it is the better one anyway.
Connect the second one, so research gets checked#
Whatever submits a finding is refused when it tries to confirm that same finding.
Add the connector a second time with the same address. Claude lists it separately, and you approve it separately — the second approval creates a second identity, which is what makes the check independent. When you ask for research, say which is which.
On a free plan you cannot do this, because of the one-connector limit. Research will run and then stop at verification with "Verification must be independent". That is the system working as designed, not a fault; the fix is a second connection.
Try it#
In a chat with the connector enabled:
What's in my GradWorkbench workspace? Just summarise it — don't research anything.
If it comes back with your universities and professor counts, you are connected. Go to what to actually say.
When it doesn't work#
The connector is listed but Claude ignores it — it is not enabled for this conversation. + → Connectors → turn it on. Every new chat starts fresh.
Adding it fails — check the address ends in /api/mcp and that you are signed in to
your workspace in the same browser.
The run stops halfway through a batch — a web conversation ran out of room. Ask for fewer professors at a time, or move the heavy work to Claude Code and keep the web app for asking questions about what is already recorded.
"Verification must be independent" — one connection is doing both jobs. See above.