How to connect Ably to Claude Cowork

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Introduction

Cowork is Anthropic's AI agent for knowledge work. Think of it as Claude Code for everything else. It works autonomously with your computer, local files, and applications to accomplish complex tasks.

This guide walks you through the easiest and most secure way to connect your Ably account to Cowork via Composio Connect, enabling it to list all active channels and their details, get message history from 'support-chat' channel, show presence history for 'live-event' channel, and more such actions on your behalf without compromising your account security.

Also integrate Ably with

Connecting Ably to Claude Cowork

1. Open Customize

In Claude Desktop, click Customize in the left sidebar, then select Connectors and click the + icon at the top.

Claude Desktop connectors screen with Add custom connector selected

2. Add the Composio MCP server

Click Add custom connector and paste in the Composio MCP server URL:

bash
https://connect.composio.dev/mcp
Add custom connector dialog with Composio MCP server URL

3. Authorize in your browser

Click Connect. You'll be redirected to a browser window where you can authorize Composio to continue.

Composio authorization screen for Claude Cowork

4. Connect your Ably account

Back in Cowork, ask the agent to connect to Ably or give it any Ably-related task.

For example, ask Cowork to:

  • "List all active channels and their details"
  • "Get message history from 'support-chat' channel"
  • "Show presence history for 'live-event' channel"

It will prompt you to authenticate and authorize access.

That's it. Composio's tools are now available in Cowork, and your Ably account is ready to use.

What is Claude Cowork?

Claude Cowork is Anthropic's agent for general knowledge work. It can use your computer, files, and connected applications to complete longer-running tasks across your work tools.

With Composio Connect, Cowork can securely access apps like Ably through MCP without you sharing account credentials directly with the agent.

What is the Ably MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Ably MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Ably account. It provides structured and secure access to your real-time messaging infrastructure, so your agent can manage channels, monitor presence, analyze usage, and handle messaging workflows for your applications.

  • Channel management and creation: Seamlessly create, initialize, or retrieve real-time messaging channels so your agent can orchestrate chat, data sync, and collaboration features on demand.
  • Presence tracking and analytics: Ask your agent to query current presence states or review historical presence data across multiple channels, gaining insights into user activity and engagement patterns.
  • Message history and audit: Retrieve detailed message histories from any channel, enabling your agent to audit communication, recover missed messages, or analyze message flows for debugging and compliance.
  • Push notification subscription management: Let your agent list, manage, or unsubscribe devices from push notification channels, ensuring targeted and controlled delivery of real-time alerts to clients.
  • Application statistics and monitoring: Have your agent fetch in-depth usage metrics—like message counts, channel activity, and API request stats—so you can monitor health, optimize performance, and manage resources with confidence.

Supported Tools & Triggers

Tools
Query Batch PresenceThis tool enables querying the presence states of multiple channels in a single api request.
Query Batch Presence HistoryThis tool enables querying presence history for multiple channels in a single api request.
Create Ably ChannelCreates a new channel or retrieves an existing channel in ably.
Delete Channel SubscriptionThis tool allows you to unsubscribe devices or clients from push notifications for specific channels.
Get Channel DetailsThis tool retrieves metadata and details for a specific channel in ably.
Get Channel HistoryThis tool retrieves the message history for a specified ably channel.
Get Channel Presence HistoryThis tool retrieves the history of presence messages for a specified channel in ably.
Get Ably Service TimeThis tool retrieves the current server time from ably's service in milliseconds since the epoch.
Get Application StatsThis tool retrieves your application's usage statistics from ably.
List Push Channel SubscriptionsThis tool retrieves a list of all push notification channel subscriptions.
Publish Message to ChannelThis tool will allow users to publish a message to a specified ably channel using a post request.

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FAQ

What are the differences in Tool Router MCP and Ably MCP?

With a standalone Ably MCP server, the agents and LLMs can only access a fixed set of Ably tools tied to that server. However, with the Composio Tool Router, agents can dynamically load tools from Ably and many other apps based on the task at hand, all through a single MCP endpoint.

Can I use Tool Router MCP with Claude Cowork?

Yes, you can. Claude Cowork fully supports MCP integration. You get structured tool calling, message history handling, and model orchestration while Tool Router takes care of discovering and serving the right Ably tools.

Can I manage the permissions and scopes for Ably while using Tool Router?

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which Ably scopes and actions are allowed when connecting your account to Composio. You can also bring your own OAuth credentials or API configuration so you keep full control over what the agent can do.

How safe is my data with Composio Tool Router?

All sensitive data such as tokens, keys, and configuration is fully encrypted at rest and in transit. Composio is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and follows strict security practices so your Ably data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

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