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Claude

Connect Open Referral to Claude (web, desktop, mobile and Cowork) as a custom connector. Once connected, you can ask Claude about your referral program in plain language and it will read live data from Open Referral — read-only, and privacy by design.

Success

What you get: program metrics, monthly trends, pending team actions, recent referrals and best-practice playbooks — without leaving Claude.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have:

  • An Open Referral account on an eligible plan (Essential or Scale).
  • An Admin or Recruiter role in at least one organisation.
  • A Claude account. Custom connectors are available on Free (1 connector), Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise. On Team/Enterprise, an Owner must add the connector first (see below).

No client ID or secret to prepare: Open Referral registers with Claude automatically (OAuth Dynamic Client Registration). You only sign in and approve access.

Info

Claude connects to Open Referral from Anthropic's cloud, not from your computer — so there's nothing to install locally. Our server (https://mcp.openreferral.io) is publicly reachable, which is all Claude needs.

Step 1 — Open the Connectors settings

On Pro or Max (individual): go to Customize → Connectors.

On Team or Enterprise: an Owner goes to Settings → Organization settings → Connectors. (Members: skip to Step 4.)

Info

📸 Screenshot to add: the Connectors settings page.

Step 2 — Add a custom connector

  • Pro / Max: click + → Add custom connector.
  • Team / Enterprise (Owner): click Add → Custom → Web.

Info

📸 Screenshot to add: the "Add custom connector" dialog.

Step 3 — Enter the Open Referral server URL

  1. Name: Open Referral
  2. Remote MCP server URL: https://mcp.openreferral.io
  3. Leave Advanced settings empty — no OAuth Client ID or Secret is required.
  4. Click Add.

Info

📸 Screenshot to add: the dialog filled with the Open Referral URL.

Step 4 — Connect your account

Click Connect on the Open Referral connector. Claude opens an Open Referral sign-in window:

  1. Sign in with your Open Referral account.
  2. On the consent screen, review the access requested and click Authorize.

The connector now shows as Connected.

Info

📸 Screenshot to add: the Open Referral OAuth consent screen.

Warning

Team/Enterprise members: once your Owner has added the connector (Steps 1–3), you connect your own account here via Customize → Connectors → Connect.

Step 5 — Use it in a conversation

In a new chat, make sure the Open Referral connector is enabled (via the connector/tools menu), then ask a question. Claude calls the relevant read-only tool and answers.

Try:

  • "How is our referral program doing this quarter?"
  • "What's waiting on my team right now?"
  • "Show me recent referrals with unpaid bonuses."
  • "What are best practices to relaunch a referral program that's losing steam?"

Info

📸 Screenshot to add: Claude answering a program-overview prompt.

What Claude can access

Open Referral exposes 7 read-only tools. Claude can read, but never modifies your data.

Tool What it returns
List My Organisations Organisations where you are Admin or Recruiter
Get Program Overview Total referrals, pipeline, hires, bonuses paid
Get Referral Trend Monthly referral trends
List Pending Actions Items awaiting your team
List Recent Referrals Latest referrals (candidate names minimised)
List Knowledge Entries Best-practice playbooks available
Get Knowledge Entry Full text of a specific playbook

Success

Privacy by design: candidate identities are minimised to a first name + initial. Emails, phone numbers and direct identifiers are never sent to Claude. See our Privacy Policy.

Troubleshooting

  • "No organisations found." Your account has no Admin or Recruiter role. Ask an admin to grant one.
  • "Copilot not available on your plan." The connector requires an Essential or Scale Open Referral plan. Contact your organisation administrator.
  • The sign-in window doesn't complete. Allow pop-ups, finish the sign-in and consent steps, then retry Connect from the Connectors settings.
  • "Add custom connector" is missing. On Team/Enterprise, only an Owner can add connectors. Ask your Owner to complete Steps 1–3, then connect your account.