Connect Claude

Claude reaches CodeBook through one connector, https://app.codebook.work/mcp, signed in with your Bookbag account. Claude Code gets it from the CodeBook plugin, together with the Factory pane, /factory and Run here. Claude chat (claude.ai, and the desktop and mobile apps) uses the same connector as a custom connector.

Before you start, sign in to app.codebook.work once. If your Bookbag account has never opened CodeBook, the connector has no factories to show you. Its tools answer "Sign in once at https://app.codebook.work/auth/login, then ask again."

Claude Code

Install the plugin

In the Claude Code desktop app: click + next to the prompt box, then Plugins, then Add marketplace. Enter bookbaghq/codebook-plugin, then add the codebook plugin.

At the prompt of a terminal session:

/plugin install codebook --marketplace bookbaghq/codebook-plugin

Or from a shell:

claude plugin install codebook --marketplace bookbaghq/codebook-plugin

Answer y to add the marketplace, then pick a scope. User scope makes the plugin available in every project.

The plugin is open source (MIT) at github.com/bookbaghq/codebook-plugin. It contains no keys and no credentials.

Sign in

The first time you use CodeBook, Claude Code asks you to sign in. Run /mcp, pick plugin:codebook:codebook, choose Authenticate, and sign in with your Bookbag account in the browser. In the desktop app, the same sign-in starts from the connectors menu.

Sign in from a terminal instead when:

• you can't reach /mcp, because the desktop app has no terminal for it; or
• CodeBook keeps asking for a permission you already allowed. Changing a factory's agents and stations needs one more permission, and an older sign-in does not have it.

Run these two commands one after the other. The second one opens the Bookbag sign-in in your browser:

claude mcp logout plugin:codebook:codebook

claude mcp login plugin:codebook:codebook

Claude Code keeps the sign-in. The plugin never sees or stores your password or a token.

Check that it works

Type /factory list. You should see the factories you can see on app.codebook.work. Then type /factory to open the Factory pane beside the chat, pick a factory, and say what it should make.

Auto mode: allow the pane's three reads

In auto mode, Claude Code checks each tool call against what you asked for. The Factory pane refreshes itself, without a message from you, so the check refuses those refreshes, and the pane says Not reached. To fix it, allow the pane's three read-only calls in ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "mcp__plugin_codebook_codebook__list_factories",
      "mcp__plugin_codebook_codebook__story_status",
      "mcp__plugin_codebook_codebook__story_trail"
    ]
  }
}

If the file already has a permissions.allow list, add the three lines to it. Only these three reads skip the check. Starting a story, approving, sending back and changing a factory still go through your prompt box and your permission mode. The pane never makes a change by itself. It puts the request, in plain words, into your prompt box, and nothing is sent until you press Enter.

Claude chat: claude.ai, desktop and mobile

Add CodeBook as a custom connector. A connector belongs to your Claude account, so you add it once.

On a Free, Pro, Max or Ultra plan:

1. Go to Customize › Connectors and choose Add custom connector.
2. Enter the server URL: https://app.codebook.work/mcp.
3. Leave the authentication settings as they are. You don't need an OAuth client ID or secret, because Claude finds the Bookbag sign-in by itself. Choose Add.
4. Choose Connect and sign in with your Bookbag account.

On the Free plan you can add one custom connector.

On a Team or Enterprise plan, an Owner adds the connector for the organization: Organization settings › Connectors, then Add, then Custom, with the same URL. Then each member goes to Customize › Connectors, finds CodeBook with the Custom label, and chooses Connect to sign in with their own Bookbag account.

Claude's own instructions are in Add a connector that isn't in the directory. Menu names can change, so follow Claude's page if it differs from this one.

Use it

Turn the connector on for a conversation from + › Connectors, then ask. For example: "Show me the board of the Payments factory", "Start a story in Payments: let customers refund a payment", or "How is story #57 going?". Claude draws the factory board and a story as cards in the chat. A card's buttons do what Claude allows: they call CodeBook directly, put the request in the chat, or open the story in CodeBook. Claude chat can't Run here: every agent station runs in CodeBook.

What you are allowing

The Bookbag sign-in asks for three permissions:

• Read your factories, stories and their trail.
• Run: start stories and decide the stations that are yours.
• Manage: change your factories' agents, stations, scorers and benchmarks.

Whatever you allow, the connector can do only what you can already do on app.codebook.work. A viewer reads, and every write is refused. If you are removed from the organization at Bookbag, your writes are refused within 15 seconds.

If something is off

• "Not reached" in the pane, in auto mode: add the three allow rules.
• A new CodeBook feature doesn't show up: a connector keeps what CodeBook offered when you connected it. Disconnect it and connect it again. In Claude Code, run /mcp and reconnect plugin:codebook:codebook.
• "This sign-in did not allow …": sign in again (/mcp › Authenticate, or the two terminal commands above) and allow the permission it names.

Next: the /factory commands, or what you can do from the chat.