Adding a custom connector to Claude: how it works and what to check

A connector is an address, not an install

A remote connector is a URL that Claude calls when it needs something it cannot do on its own. Nothing is installed on your computer and nothing runs on your infrastructure. You paste the address once, approve the accounts it may reach, and it is ready in every conversation after that.

Read-only and write-capable are different products

Most comparison articles skip this distinction. A read-only connector answers questions about your data; a write-capable one changes the system underneath. Both are useful, but only the second takes over the work itself, and only the second needs an approval gate.

Tecrube is the second kind: it reads reports, but it also changes budgets, pauses campaigns and adds negative keywords. That is exactly why the checklist below applies to it too.

A hosted connector removes the credential chore

Self-hosted MCP servers expect you to obtain platform credentials yourself; for Google Ads that means applying for a developer token and waiting for approval. A hosted connector handles that layer, so your setup stops being a project and becomes a sign-in.

Check what happens before a change is applied

The question to put to any write-capable connector is simple: what stands between your instruction and a live change? Look for a preview, an explicit confirmation step and a log you can read afterwards. A connector that applies a change the moment it understands it may exist, but that is a design decision you should choose knowingly.

In Tecrube every write first shows what changes, in which account, from the current value to the new one, and the approval is enforced on the server. A single budget increase above 50 percent is refused, every action is written to an audit log with the previous value kept, and reverting takes one sentence or one click in the dashboard, and Tecrube sends the real reverse request to the platform (the previous budget, a resume, removing an added negative). Actions with no reverse, such as a permanent removal, are flagged as irreversible in advance.

One connector can cover many accounts

Adding a separate connector per platform gets unwieldy fast. Tecrube puts Google Ads, Meta Ads, Microsoft Advertising, TikTok Ads and LinkedIn Ads, plus Search Console, GA4, Tag Manager, YouTube and Business Profile, behind one address. Each platform is authorised on its own, so connecting one never grants access to another.

The same address works beyond Claude

The Model Context Protocol is not tied to one app, so a well-built remote connector also works in ChatGPT developer mode and in Cursor without a second account or a second configuration.

Set it up in 60 seconds

• 1. Add it in the Claude app: go to Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector and paste the connector address. For Tecrube that is https://tecrube.com/api/v1/mcp. Claude shows you the tools a connector exposes before you use any of them.
• 2. Add it in Claude Code: the terminal has no settings screen, so registration is one line: claude mcp add --transport http tecrube https://tecrube.com/api/v1/mcp. Then authenticate once with /mcp, and the agent that already reads your codebase gains the tools. You can also use a key from dashboard › Account › API in an Authorization: Bearer header.
• 3. Authorise only what you need, then test on something reversible: connect one account first rather than all of them. Ask for a read and check the number against one you already know; only then ask for a small change and watch the preview and approval flow with your own eyes.

Ask in plain English

• “Which accounts are connected right now, and what can you actually do with each of them?”
• “Connect my Google Ads account, then list the accounts you can see before we change anything.”
• “Read last week's Google Ads spend and last week's GA4 sessions and tell me whether they line up.”
• “Add these five queries as campaign-level negative keywords, but show me the preview first.”
• “Which of my connected platforms has the worst cost per result this month?”
• “Find the Search Console pages that lost clicks in the last 28 days and tell me which of them also run ads.”