Connect the Claude connector

Add Dalea as a custom connector on claude.ai (web, Desktop, mobile).

Add Dalea as a custom connector in Claude (claude.ai on the web, Claude Desktop and mobile) so Claude can search, read and — if you allow it — update your workspace during a conversation. This is the one-URL "connector" flow. If you use Claude Code or another CLI/config-based client, see Connect Claude Desktop instead.

The flow at a glance:

Add connector in Claude → Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector → https://dalea.app/mcp
OAuth challenge — Claude discovers Dalea's authorisation server and opens the login page.
Pick workspace + role — choose which workspace Claude sees and the role it acts as.
Consent — approve the requested scopes (mcp:read, optionally mcp:write).
Tool calls start flowing — every call is scoped to that workspace, rate-limited and audited.

Prerequisites

A Dalea account with a role on the workspace you want to expose (Viewer is enough for read-only).
A Claude plan that supports custom connectors: Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise (Free is limited to a single custom connector).
Team / Enterprise: an Owner adds the connector once under Organization settings → Connectors; members then connect and authenticate individually.
The organisation's mcp feature is enabled (an admin toggle — see Troubleshooting).
Your Dalea MCP URL: https://dalea.app/mcp (Enterprise customers use the URL provided by their administrator).

Step-by-step

Add the connector in Claude
On claude.ai go to Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, and paste the server URL:
```
https://dalea.app/mcp
```
On Team/Enterprise an Owner adds it under Organization settings → Connectors so the whole org can enable it. You do not need to enter a client ID or secret — Claude registers itself automatically (Dynamic Client Registration, PKCE).
Authorise
Click Connect. Claude reads Dalea's discovery metadata and opens Dalea's sign-in page in your browser. Sign in if you are not already.
Pick a workspace and role
Choose the workspace you want Claude to see, and the role Claude should act as. Keep your own role for full access, or downgrade to Viewer for a "look but don't touch" connection. The consent screen lists the scopes Claude is requesting: mcp:read and (for the write tools) mcp:write.
You are connected
Dalea issues a short-lived bearer token with automatic refresh. Every tool call re-checks your workspace scope and role on the server, is rate-limited per user, and is written to the audit log.
Try a real query
Back in Claude, ask something that needs your data:
- "Search my Dalea workspace for the ELISpot assay and summarise the latest results."
- "List the freezers and show me what is stored in Box 12."
- "Draft a methods section in the Study DLA-7 report from the recorded qPCR results."
Claude invokes Dalea MCP tools (for example search_all, result_data_read, document_markdown_write) and streams the results into its answer.

What Claude can do — reads vs writes

Dalea exposes its tools with reads and writes as separate, clearly-labelled tools, so you (and Claude) always know when a call only reads your workspace versus when it changes it. Read tools are marked read-only; write tools that can delete or overwrite data (document deletes, schema commits, the workspace shell) are marked destructive.

Group	Read tools	Write tools
Search & navigation	`search_all`, `related_entities`, `workspace_info`, `dalea_bash` (read commands)	`dalea_bash` (mkdir/mv/rm)
Documents	`document_markdown_read`, `document_versions_read`	`create`, `document_markdown_write`, `document_versions_write`
Projects	`manage_projects_read`	`manage_projects_write`
Data (schema & rows)	`data_environments_read`, `data_tables_read`, `data_columns_read`, `data_objects_read`, `data_queries_read`	`data_environments_write` (commit), `data_tables_write`, `data_columns_write`, `data_objects_write`, `data_queries_write`
Results	`result_data_read`	`result_data_write`
Inventory	`inventory_types`, `inventory_containers_read`, `inventory_items_read`	`inventory_containers_write`, `inventory_items_write`
Import / export	`import_data_read`, `export_data`	`import_data_write`
Marketplace & skills	`marketplace_packages`, `list_skills`, `load_skill`, `get_tool_examples`	—

Connect as Viewer to expose only the read tools. Some irreversible actions (hard file deletes, schema-destroying edits) are intentionally not exposed to the connector and stay in the Dalea UI under human review.

Security model

Token lifetime: Short-lived bearer token, auto-refreshed on first call after expiry; revoked when you disconnect the connector or sign out of Dalea.
Audience: Tokens are bound to this MCP resource and validated on every call — they will not work against another service.
Workspace scope: One workspace per connection. Switching workspaces requires re-authorising the connector.
Least privilege: Pick the role Claude acts as at connect time; downgrade to Viewer for read-only.
Audit: Every tool call is logged with the actor, workspace, tool name and a correlation id.
Rate limits: Per-user, per-workspace budgets; overage returns a clear, retryable error.
Data handling: Dalea reads only the workspace data needed for each request. See the Privacy Policy at dalea.app/privacy.

Troubleshooting

Workspace selection shows "No workspaces available". The organisation does not have the mcp feature enabled. An org admin must enable it before members can connect.
The login loops back to workspace selection. The selection step has a short time-out; if it lapses, start the connect flow again.
Tools do not appear. Some clients cache the tool list — disconnect and reconnect the connector.
"No workspace context" errors. Your connection was revoked. Remove and re-add the connector, then pick a workspace and role again.

What's next

Connect Claude Desktop

The CLI/config flow for Claude Code, Cursor and other MCP clients.

AI overview

The two AI surfaces: in-app chat and external MCP clients.

MCP for tool builders

How the Dalea MCP server is built.

Connect Claude Desktop

Your first PK/PD study