How to Give Claude Access to Your Documentation With MCP

Claude will answer a question about your product whether or not it can see your docs. The difference is whether the reply cites the page your team would have opened.

A custom connector is that link. You deploy the documentation as an MCP server, paste the server URL into Claude, and turn the connector on in a chat. Claude asks the server, reads the passages, and writes from those. You are not uploading the help center into every conversation.

What you are connecting

A custom connector is a named connection between Claude and a remote MCP server. You add it once. In a new chat you open Connectors and turn it on.

The click-by-click version, with the same dialog screenshots, is Create a Claude custom connector. This post is the documentation job that connector is for. Anthropic's guide to custom connectors covers which Claude plans can add one. They work on the web, in Claude Desktop, and in Cowork. A Free plan holds one custom connector.

Why connect the docs

A key-rotation answer from the page that holds it. Your help center says API keys are rotated from Settings → Developers, and that webhooks keep working if the old and new keys overlap for 24 hours. That sentence is not general knowledge. The connector is how Claude finds it.

The same help center in every chat. You add the connector once. You do not paste the docs URL into the prompt again.

You choose the site Claude can see. A documentation site, a handbook PDF, or a repository beside the docs. Claude only sees what you put on that server. A second source is not a second connector. Add it on the same server when both belong to one job. See Create an MCP server from multiple sources.

Make the server in MCP Studio

Claude reaches custom connectors from Anthropic's cloud, so the URL has to be on the public internet. MCP Studio is the no-code builder on Appa Tools. It hosts the server for you. Open the wizard. You do not write any code.

1. Name it for the docs. Payments help center tells you what the connector is for later.
2. Add the documentation URL. A section of the site is easier to judge than the whole company domain. A website source is indexed up to 5,000 pages.
3. Choose search and question answering. Add API reference lookup when the docs include an endpoint reference. The tool selection guide covers each one.
4. Deploy. Indexing starts in the background. Give a large site time to finish before you judge the answers.

Copy the server URL from the setup page:

https://appatools.com/mcp-studio/api/mcp/your-server-name

Paste that into Claude. The wizard address and the dashboard will not accept the call.

If the docs are confidential, make the server private and add the access token in the connector settings. Treat the token like a password. The private servers guide covers how it works.

Connect it in Claude

These steps match Claude on the web and Claude Desktop.

1. Open Claude. Click the + button, then Connectors.
2. Click Add connector, then Add custom connector.

3. Enter a Name you will recognize, and paste the MCP server URL.
4. Click Continue.

On a Team or Enterprise plan, an Owner adds the connector first. Everyone else clicks Connect on it afterward.

5. Back in the chat, open Connectors and turn this one on.

A connector can exist on the account and stay off for the conversation you are in. If Claude answers with no connector activity, that toggle is the first thing to check. The rest of the misses are in Fix an MCP server that isn't showing up in Claude.

Check that it works

Ask how to rotate a key without dropping webhooks. The reply should mention the 24 hour overlap and cite Settings → Developers. Open the citation.

Then ask something the help center does not document.

You: What is our incident escalation policy?

Assistant: Nothing in this server's content covers incident escalation. The closest material is the key rotation guide, which is a different subject. You would need to add that document as a source.

That refusal is how you know the connector is in the path, rather than Claude filling a gap from general knowledge.

If the reply is not what you expected

Change one thing, then ask the same question again. Confirm the toggle is on for this chat. Confirm indexing has finished on the dashboard. Rephrase the question in the wording the help center uses. A Free Claude plan holds one custom connector. MCP Studio's free tier covers a first server.

Give Claude your documentation today

Give Claude your documentation today. Open MCP Studio, deploy the docs, and paste the URL into Claude. Turn the connector on and ask the key-rotation question. The citation tells you whether to keep it.

Where to go next

• Create a Claude custom connector
• Get started with custom connectors
• Connect to AI tools
• Let AI agents search your documentation