# Use with Claude

Connect Archive to Claude to search captured content, look up creators, and manage saved views from a conversation. Setup requires only the endpoint URL — there is no client ID, no token to copy, and nothing to install.

```http
POST https://app.archive.com/api/v2/mcp
```

## Set up your client

Follow the instructions for your client. After you authorize the connection, Claude can read — and if you granted write access, update — content in the workspaces you can already access.

1. Open **Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector**.
2. Paste the endpoint URL above and save.
3. Log in to Archive when the consent screen opens, and choose whether to grant the optional **write** scope.
4. Back in the chat, enable the connector in the tools menu.

> **Write access is granted at consent time**
>
> Without the write scope, Claude sees only the read tools — `tools/list` omits the write half entirely rather than advertising tools that would fail.

## What happens during authorization

Claude connects with **OAuth 2.1**. You don’t create or paste an API token:

1. Claude’s first call gets HTTP 401 with a `WWW-Authenticate` challenge naming Archive’s protected-resource metadata.
2. It fetches the authorization-server metadata and registers itself via Dynamic Client Registration — nothing to configure on Archive’s side.
3. You log in at Archive’s consent screen and choose the scopes to grant. Without the optional **write** scope the connection is read-only.
4. Claude exchanges the authorization code for an opaque, Archive-issued access token scoped to what you approved.

Each person authorizes their own connection, and revoking one affects only that connection. Scopes are chosen at consent time only, so to change them, remove the connector and add it again.

## Verify it works

Ask Claude to list your Archive workspaces. If the connection works, Claude calls `getWorkspaces` and returns your actual workspace names and IDs. If the tool list is empty or every call returns 401, authorization didn’t complete — remove the connector and add it again.

See [Example prompts](/api/v2/docs/mcp/example-prompts) for more starting points, or [Troubleshooting](/api/v2/docs/mcp/troubleshooting) if something isn’t working.

> **Running a server-side agent instead?**
>
> A bearer token from the Integration tab also works — but it is a write-capable, server-side secret. See [Connect a client](/api/v2/docs/mcp/connect) for when to use which.