How to connect Dovetail 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 Dovetail account to Cowork via Composio Connect, enabling it to summarize all data points for project X, create a new insight from interview notes, list every contact added this month, and more such actions on your behalf without compromising your account security.

Also integrate Dovetail with

Connecting Dovetail 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 Dovetail account

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

For example, ask Cowork to:

  • "Summarize all data points for project X"
  • "Create a new insight from interview notes"
  • "List every contact added this month"

It will prompt you to authenticate and authorize access.

That's it. Composio's tools are now available in Cowork, and your Dovetail 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 Dovetail through MCP without you sharing account credentials directly with the agent.

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

The Dovetail MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Dovetail account. It provides structured and secure access to your research workspace, so your agent can perform actions like creating insights, managing contacts, organizing channels, and retrieving research notes on your behalf.

  • Automated insight creation: Let your agent synthesize findings and store new insights in your Dovetail projects, streamlining your research analysis workflow.
  • Channel and topic management: Easily create, organize, or delete channels and topics to keep your research data structured and accessible.
  • Contact management and retrieval: Automatically add new research contacts or list all contacts in your workspace for better respondent tracking.
  • Research note access: Ask your agent to fetch detailed information about specific notes, giving you instant access to key research materials.
  • Data point recording and classification: Capture and categorize new data points within channels, ensuring every piece of feedback or observation is logged and ready for analysis.

Supported Tools & Triggers

Tools
Create ChannelCreates a new channel in Dovetail to organize and collect feedback data.
Create ContactTool to create a new contact in Dovetail.
Create DataTool to create a data item in a Dovetail project with text content, title, and/or structured fields.
Create Data PointTool to create a data point within a channel.
Create DocTool to create a doc in a Dovetail project with text content, title and/or custom fields.
Create InsightCreates a new insight in Dovetail to store synthesized research findings, observations, or conclusions.
Create NoteTool to create a note in a Dovetail project with text content, title and/or custom fields.
Create ProjectTool to create a new project in your Dovetail workspace.
Create TopicTool to create a new topic in a Dovetail channel.
Delete ChannelTool to delete an existing channel.
Delete DataTool to delete an existing data item.
Delete DocTool to delete an existing doc.
Delete InsightTool to delete an existing insight.
Delete NoteTool to delete an existing note.
Delete TopicTool to delete an existing topic.
Export DataTool to export data in HTML or Markdown format.
Export DocTool to export a doc in HTML or Markdown format.
Export InsightTool to export an insight in HTML or Markdown format.
Export NoteTool to export a note from Dovetail in HTML or Markdown format.
Get ContactTool to retrieve details of a specific contact.
Get DataTool to retrieve details of a specific data item by ID.
Get DocTool to retrieve details of a specific doc by ID.
Get FileTool to retrieve details of a specific file by its ID.
Get FolderTool to retrieve details of a specific folder.
Get InsightTool to retrieve details of a specific insight by ID.
Get NoteTool to retrieve details of a specific note.
Get ProjectTool to retrieve details of a specific project.
Get Token InfoRetrieves information about the current API token, including its unique identifier and the associated workspace subdomain.
Import Data FileTool to import a public URL of a file as new data in Dovetail.
Import Doc FileTool to import a public file URL as a new doc in Dovetail.
Import Insight from FileTool to import a file from a public URL as a new insight in Dovetail.
Import Note FileTool to import a file from a public URL as a new note in Dovetail.
List ContactsRetrieves a paginated list of contacts from a Dovetail workspace.
List DataTool to list data items in Dovetail.
List DocsTool to list docs in a Dovetail workspace with optional filtering, sorting, and pagination.
List FoldersTool to get a list of folders associated with a workspace.
List HighlightsList highlights from your Dovetail workspace with optional filtering and pagination.
List InsightsTool to get a list of insights associated with a workspace.
List NotesList notes in Dovetail workspace with optional pagination and sorting.
List ProjectsTool to list all projects in Dovetail.
List TagsList all tags in the authenticated Dovetail workspace.
List User DocsTool to get a list of docs associated with a user in Dovetail.
List User InsightsList personal insights for a user in Dovetail.
Magic SearchTool to perform a magic search across workspace data.
Update ChannelTool to update an existing channel's title or context.
Update ContactTool to update an existing contact in Dovetail.
Update DataTool to update a data item in Dovetail.
Update DocTool to update a doc in Dovetail.
Update InsightUpdates an existing insight in Dovetail, allowing you to modify the title and custom fields.
Update NoteTool to update an existing note in Dovetail.
Update TopicTool to update an existing topic.

How to build Dovetail MCP Agent with another framework

FAQ

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

With a standalone Dovetail MCP server, the agents and LLMs can only access a fixed set of Dovetail tools tied to that server. However, with the Composio Tool Router, agents can dynamically load tools from Dovetail 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 Dovetail tools.

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

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which Dovetail 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 Dovetail data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

Used by agents from

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Context
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