How to Connect Routinery to Claude (MCP): Step by Step (2026)

Last updated: 2026-08-30

Quick answer: open Claude's connector settings, add a custom connector, paste in Routinery's MCP server address, then sign in with your Routinery account when Claude asks. The whole thing is free on Routinery's side regardless of subscription, and it takes longer to read this page than to do it.

MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, an open-source standard built for linking AI applications like Claude to outside apps and data rather than something Routinery invented for itself. Once you connect Routinery's MCP server, Claude can read your routines, create new ones, and edit existing steps inside a normal chat, without you opening the app.

What the connection enables: six documented use cases

Routinery's MCP page lists six things you can ask for once the connection is live, and it's worth reading them literally rather than assuming more.

Three touch the routine itself. Claude can view one ("show my morning routine", which comes back with each habit, its duration, and the total). It can draft a new one ("create a 10-minute wind-down routine"), with habits, timers, and repeat days attached. And it can edit a step ("make meditation five minutes"), recalculating the total as it goes. The page's own examples also show duplicating a routine onto different days, which is how a weekday morning becomes a weekend one.

One reads your history back to you. Ask it to look at the month and you get completion rates, streaks, and which days you skip, described as a pattern rather than a screen of numbers.

The last two leave Routinery entirely, and that distinction matters: putting routines on Google Calendar as recurring events, and exporting them into a Notion page. Those work because Claude is already connected to your calendar or your workspace. Routinery supplies the routine data and Claude writes it into the other tool.

One safeguard is worth naming before you start. Routinery asks for explicit confirmation before anything is created, duplicated, or edited, so Claude proposes the change and you approve the exact action before it saves.

Two use cases people ask about by name work this way. Putting a routine schedule on Google Calendar as recurring events, or organizing routines into a Notion page, aren't Routinery features you switch on in the app. They're documented as MCP use cases: Claude already has its own connection to your calendar or your Notion workspace, and once it can also see your routine data, it writes the routine into the other tool for you. Our MCP page documents both as things the connection enables, not as settings inside the app, so the place to set them up is Claude rather than a Routinery screen. A third documented use case works the same way from the other direction: asking Claude to look back at your completion rate, streaks, and skipped days and describe the pattern, since that reading also happens through the connection rather than inside a Routinery report screen.

Connect Routinery to Claude: the steps

Open Claude, then go to your connector settings and add Routinery's MCP server as a custom connector. Routinery's own setup guide lays the path out as six clicks:

1. Open claude.ai and click your profile icon in the bottom left.
2. Select Settings from the menu that appears.
3. Click the Connectors tab on the left side of the settings screen.
4. Click + Add custom connector near the top.
5. Paste Routinery's MCP server address into the remote server URL field: https://mcp.routinery.app/mcp
6. Click Add, then click Connect and sign in with your Routinery account.

That last step is the only one that touches your Routinery data directly. Claude asks you to authenticate, and nothing about your routines is visible to Claude until you approve that sign-in.

Then do the step most people skip. Adding a connector does not switch it on inside a conversation. Open a new chat, click the + at the bottom, open Connectors, and turn Routinery on there. If you ask about your routines before doing this, Claude answers as though it has never heard of the app, which reads exactly like a broken connection and is not one.

If your screen doesn't match this exactly, that's expected rather than a sign something broke. Anthropic's own connector help center describes a Customize > Connectors path for Pro and Max accounts rather than the Settings tab above, and a separate, organization-level path for Team and Enterprise admins. Claude's own settings menu changes faster than any third-party guide can track, this one included, so treat the numbered steps above as the shape of the process and Anthropic's help center as the tiebreaker for the exact click order on your account.

Before you start: what the connection requires

Routinery's MCP page is direct about cost: connecting is free for every Routinery user, whether or not you subscribe to Routinery Premium, and using it just needs a Routinery account, since the first connection attempt sends you through an OAuth sign-in. On Claude's side, the requirement sits with your Claude plan rather than your Routinery one. Free-tier Claude accounts are capped at 1 custom connector, so if you've already added one for something else, adding Routinery means removing it first or upgrading. Anthropic's own guide lists 5 steps for Pro and Max accounts to add a connector, which lines up with the six-click path above once you count "sign in" as its own step.

None of this is unique to Routinery. The protocol's own introduction page names 5 supported clients, including Claude and Cursor, and Notion runs a comparably documented MCP server of its own. What's specific to this setup is the server address and the three use cases above, not the underlying connection method.

If it doesn't work: two things to check first

Both of the common failures have short answers, and neither means the connection is broken.

The sign-in screen never appears. Check the server address for a trailing space, which is easy to pick up when copying and invisible once pasted. On ChatGPT specifically, the connection also needs Developer mode enabled and Public endpoint selected as the connection type, and it fails quietly without them.

Your assistant's plan doesn't allow it. This varies by client and has nothing to do with your Routinery subscription. Claude works on every plan including Free, though a free Claude account can hold only one custom connector at a time. ChatGPT requires a paid plan, meaning Plus, Pro, Business or Enterprise, and Developer mode switched on. Cursor and Gemini CLI work on every plan.

Getting started: what to try first

Once Routinery is enabled in the conversation, start small. Ask it to show you tomorrow's routine before asking it to build one from a blank chat, so you can see what a routine object actually looks like coming back through the connection. Then try an edit, since that's where the confirmation step becomes visible: Claude proposes the change and waits for you rather than saving it. If Notion is where you already keep the rest of your planning and you're deciding whether it's worth running two systems, our review of Notion alternatives for routines and habits covers that trade-off directly. And if calendar sync is the one feature you came here for, it's worth reading how that compares with apps built around calendar time-blocking alternatives before deciding an assistant-driven sync is the right shape for you.

Frequently asked questions: connecting Routinery to Claude

How do I connect Routinery to Claude using MCP?

Open Claude's settings, click the Connectors tab, then add a custom connector and paste in Routinery's MCP server address (https://mcp.routinery.app/mcp). Clicking Add and then Connect prompts you to sign in with your Routinery account, and that sign-in is what actually links your data. If your version of Claude shows a different menu path, Anthropic's own connector help center documents the current one for your specific plan, since Team and Enterprise accounts add connectors through an organization settings screen instead of the personal one described above.

Does connecting Routinery to Claude cost anything?

No, not on Routinery's side. Routinery's MCP page states plainly that the connection is free for all users regardless of subscription status, so a free-tier Routinery account can use it the same way a paying one does. The cost, if any, sits on Claude's side instead: free Claude accounts are limited to one custom connector, so Routinery has to be that one connector, or you need a paid Claude plan to add more than one.

Does linking Routinery to Claude turn on calendar sync automatically?

No. Our MCP page documents calendar sync as something you ask Claude for once the two are connected, not as a setting you switch on, and it works because Claude already has access to your calendar separately. The writing happens through Claude, so nothing updates until you ask for it in a chat. If you were expecting a toggle on a Routinery settings screen, the place to set this up is Claude instead.

Can Claude export my Routinery routines into Notion?

Yes, that's one of the documented use cases, phrased as asking Claude to organize your routines into a Notion page. As with calendar sync, this depends on Claude already being connected to your Notion workspace on its own. Routinery's MCP connection supplies the routine data, and Claude's separate Notion connection is what writes the page. As with the calendar, the place to set this up is Claude rather than a Routinery screen.

Is Routinery the only habit or routine app that connects to Claude through MCP?

No. MCP is an open standard that other apps, including Notion, also document support for on their own sites, so the connection method itself isn't specific to Routinery. What's specific to Routinery is what you get back once it's connected: a routine, ordered steps with a timer on each, rather than a single task or a generic page.

About the author. Written by the Routinery team. Every step and requirement above is checked against Routinery's own MCP page and Anthropic's connector documentation, both linked in place so you can verify them yourself before you paste anything into Claude.