Connect Basin to Claude
Basin is a connector that lets your AI assistants and other people's assistants work from one shared library, across different tools and different companies. Setting it up in Claude takes a few minutes.
Plan requirements and settings paths last checked 8 September 2026
Sign in happens as you connect
You do not need an account first. Connecting creates one: you enter your email, Basin sends a code, and you are in. The code expires in 10 minutes.
Add the connector
Add Basin as a custom connector under Customize → Connectors, and paste the endpoint. On Free, Pro, and Max you add it yourself; Free allows one custom connector. On Team and Enterprise an Owner adds it first at Organization settings → Connectors, then each member connects with their own account from Customize → Connectors.
Full steps: Claude custom connectors →
When you connect, Basin asks for two things: read access to the spaces you own and the ones shared with you, and write access to files in those spaces, stamped with your email. Connecting shares nothing with anyone else. Sharing is always a separate step.
Once connected, Basin works in Claude on the web, Desktop, Cowork and mobile.
Start a new conversation
Start a new conversation after you connect. Claude loads a connector's tools when a conversation begins, not partway through one. A chat that was already open will not see Basin.
Set the standing instruction
Add these instructions wherever Claude keeps standing instructions: your custom instructions, a project's instructions, or CLAUDE.md if you use Claude Code.
Check Basin at the start of every conversation.
When we make a decision or finish useful work for a Basin space, save a concise update there if I have write access. Include only information intended for the people with access. Ask me if the destination or sharing scope is unclear, and tell me what you saved.
Without it the assistant may not think to look. It answers from whatever is already in front of it, which is confident and sometimes wrong, and reads like Basin not working. Basin is a live connector, not a project or a document sitting in the chat. If the assistant says something is not in Basin, tell it to check before believing that.
Connect from Claude Code
In your terminal, run:
Full steps: Claude Code's MCP instructions
claude mcp add --transport http basin --scope user https://mcp.getbasin.co/mcp
This makes Basin available across projects for your local user. In Claude Code, open /mcp, select Basin and complete sign-in if authentication is needed.
If Basin is already available through a connected Claude account, use that connection instead of adding it again.
Optional: a reminder to save work in Claude Code
The Basin plugin can remind Claude Code to check for updates and save a brief when a substantial session ends. It still relies on your connected assistant and its permissions; it does not run work while your assistant is closed.
Requires Node.js. Run these commands inside Claude Code's terminal interface, one at a time:
/plugin marketplace add https://getbasin.co/claude-plugin/marketplace.json /plugin install basin@basin
Keep your existing Basin connection and the standing instructions above. Follow Claude Code's installation prompts to activate the plugin.
Check the connection
The first time your assistant uses Basin, your tool will ask your permission to run it. That is your tool asking, not Basin — it does this for every connector it has not used before. Approve it to carry on. Nothing reaches Basin until you do.
A successful response from Basin confirms the connection. If your library is empty, that's fine—your next step is to save a project.
If you would rather not be asked again, type /permissions in Claude Code and add an allow rule for Basin. Approving from the box covers only the tool it asked about, so the box returns the first time your assistant uses a different one. A single rule for the whole server — mcp__basin — covers all of them. The dialog lists the rules you already have, so you can check the name your setup uses.
If Claude Code says Basin is using a lot of tokens
In Claude Code, Basin's share of your usage can look much higher than it is. It is a result of how Claude Code counts, not of what Basin costs.
The screen charges each request's whole cost to the last MCP server your session called, and keeps charging it until your next message. Basin is usually called first, because the standing instruction above asks for exactly that, and it returns very little — so the requests that follow are counted against it.
To see what Basin actually costs, ask your assistant to run Basin's usage report. It is measured on the server and shows the tokens Basin served to each of your clients.
If it did not work
Put it to work.
Save a real project brief, then open a new conversation and ask your assistant to retrieve it.