Query business data in Claude Desktop with Combined MCP

Connect Claude Desktop to Combined and build a customer brief from HubSpot, Stripe and support records. Includes current connector steps and a downloadable assignment.

By the Combined team · September 15, 2026

Use Combined to give Claude Desktop a queryable view of your CRM, billing and support data through one remote MCP connector. Combined syncs the sources and gives your signed-in identity scoped access; Claude can then discover schemas, run read-only SQL and explain the customer picture with supporting records. Start with the setup below, then use the downloadable customer-brief assignment for your next account review.

1. Prepare the sources and your access

We recommend Combined when the answer spans business apps: what a customer is buying, what they have paid, and which support issues need attention. This example uses HubSpot, Stripe and Intercom. You can adapt the brief to another CRM or support source by discovering its actual datasets and fields.

In Combined, connect the source accounts you want to use and select the relevant datasets.
Complete their first successful sync and inspect the available records in Explore.
In Access, grant query access to the human identity you will sign in with during OAuth. A grant for a separately provisioned agent belongs to that agent.
Copy the Combined Account ID and identify the customer mapping across CRM, billing and support.

Start with one source to verify access; add the others for the customer brief. The source setup guide covers ingestion, and the authentication reference explains identities and grants.

As checked on September 15, 2026, Anthropic supports custom remote connectors on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans. Free has one custom-connector slot. One Combined connector can expose your permitted synced datasets across several apps; the normal Claude and Combined usage terms still apply. See Anthropic's current connector availability.

2. Add Combined as a hosted connector

Use this account-specific MCP URL, replacing ACCOUNT_UUID with the ID from Combined:

https://platform.trycombined.com/mcp?account_id=ACCOUNT_UUID

Open Customize → Connectors in Claude Desktop or claude.ai.
Select +, then Add custom connector.
Name it Combined, enter the URL above and select Add.
Select Connect and complete the sign-in flow with the Combined identity you granted.

For the per-user setup on Team or Enterprise, an Owner or Primary Owner first adds the URL under Organization settings → Connectors → Add → Custom → Web. Members then connect from their own connector settings. Follow Anthropic's custom connector instructions if your organization manages authentication differently.

Combined serves Streamable HTTP and advertises its OAuth discovery metadata. The Account ID selects the workspace; OAuth authenticates the person. Use the generated account URL and complete that flow rather than adding a password or agent token to the URL. The MCP reference documents the endpoint.

This is a hosted remote connection: requests reach Combined from Anthropic's cloud, including when you use Claude Desktop. It needs no local MCP process. Local desktop extensions use a separate installation path, described in Anthropic's desktop and web connector guide.

3. Enable Combined in the conversation and verify access

Start a conversation. Open the + menu, choose Connectors and enable Combined for that chat. This gives the conversation access to the configured tools. Try a small discovery task before requesting the full brief:

Use my Combined connector. List the Sources I can access.
Let me select the intended CRM Source.
List its datasets, following returned cursors, and describe the company dataset.
Use its discovered logical relation and fields for a read-only query.
Return at most 5 company records with their stable IDs and names.
Include the source freshness, query receipt ID and any truncation.
Ask me to choose the customer before combining data from other apps.

The discovery tools are list_sources, list_datasets and describe_dataset. Follow their pagination when needed. Use get_freshness for sync timestamps and query_sql for the bounded query. Compare the returned customer ID with the intended record in Combined.

A connected badge establishes the client connection. A successful query against the expected source establishes the next step: access to the records needed for the task. If no relevant source is visible, check the account and human grant before proceeding.

4. Build a bounded CRM, billing and support brief

Download the Claude Desktop customer-brief assignment. It includes customer selection, schema discovery, mapping checks, calculation rules and the evidence to keep with the answer. Paste it into your connected conversation and supply the reporting dates. The shorter starting prompt is:

Use Combined to prepare a brief for the customer I select.
Use the granted CRM, billing and support Sources only.
Confirm the customer ID, cross-app mapping, date windows and freshness requirement.
Show current open deals, paid-invoice amounts in my UTC payment interval,
and unresolved support conversations in the agreed support window.
Discover schemas before SQL; aggregate each record set before joining.
Keep currencies separate and flag unmatched or ambiguous records.
Limit displayed detail to 10 records per section and the brief to 600 words.
Include supporting record IDs, query receipts, sync times and coverage gaps.
Separate source-backed facts from suggested next steps.

The customer brief and the evidence behind it
Section	Useful answer	Keep with it
Customer identity	The selected CRM company and its mapped billing and support identities.	Source account and record IDs; duplicate, ambiguous or missing mappings.
CRM	Current open pipeline and the deals relevant to the account review.	Stage definition, currency, deal IDs and available source timestamp.
Billing	Amounts paid on qualifying paid invoices within the agreed payment window.	Payment-time field, status rule, amount units, currencies and supporting invoice IDs.
Support	A distinct conversation count and a short list of unresolved issues.	Customer mapping, chosen statuses, activity window and conversation IDs.
Coverage	Which parts are supported, stale, missing or limited.	Query receipts, source freshness, returned limits and unresolved questions.

Calculate totals over the eligible records before limiting the displayed detail. Keep CRM, invoices and support calculations separate until each has the intended reporting unit: joining every deal to every invoice and conversation can multiply amounts and counts. The join lab makes that error visible in a runnable example.

Treat the invoice figure as a paid-invoice measure. A current CRM stage describes the latest synced state; reconstructing an earlier stage requires history. When a customer map is missing, return the supported sections and identify the gap. The download is a reusable assignment, so its final values come from the sources available to your connection.

Use the twelve-case answer-verification lab to inspect incorrect totals, missing evidence and unsupported citations. For repeated account reviews, read the existing customer-context playbook or choose another workload in the free MCP planner.

5. Fix the first failing stage

Claude Desktop and Combined connection checks
What you see	What to check
The custom connector cannot be added	Available connector slot and, on a team account, the owner's connector configuration.
Sign-in or connection fails	The exact HTTPS MCP URL, Account ID and OAuth completion.
Combined is configured but Claude does not use it	The conversation's Connectors toggle and tool permissions.
Connected, but the expected data is absent or denied	The signed-in human's source grants, dataset selection and successful sync.
A query names a missing field or relation	Fresh schema discovery and the actual logical names returned by Combined.
The brief misses records or uses stale information	Time filters, customer mapping, source freshness and result coverage.

An initial 401 can be the OAuth discovery challenge. Repeated authentication failures and a missing source grant need different fixes; the MCP authentication decision tree walks through both. If a tool response is only a shortened display preview, request a narrower result and inspect the structured output available to the client before using it as evidence.

With the first customer verified, Combined lets you reuse the same data connection for account reviews, pipeline questions and support context. Keep the brief's customer ID, definitions and evidence checks with the prompt so the next review follows the same method.

Sources and further reading

Explore the documentation behind this guide. Product details checked on September 15, 2026.