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How to connect Needle to Claude

Connect Claude Web, Desktop and Cowork to Needle MCP. List all document collections i have, show stats for your 'research' collection, and more using natural language, with authentication handled for you.

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Needle is a RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) toolkit that brings semantic search capabilities to your own data. It lets you build smarter AI agents by giving them context-aware, accurate information retrieval.

16 Tools

Introduction

Claude is Anthropic's AI assistant, available on the web, in the desktop app, and on mobile. Cowork is its agent for knowledge work, and it runs on all of those surfaces too. Connected to your apps, Claude can work with your files and services to accomplish complex tasks on your behalf.

This guide walks you through the easiest and most secure way to connect your Needle account to Claude via Composio Connect, enabling it to list all document collections I have, show stats for your 'research' collection, find files in collection uploaded this week, and more such actions on your behalf without compromising your account security.

Setup is the same on Claude Web, Desktop, and Cowork, and you only need to do it once. The connector is tied to your account, so it's available in all three.

Also integrate Needle with

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Connecting Needle to Claude Web, Desktop, and Cowork

Two ways to add the Composio connector. Pick whichever you prefer.

1. Add with one click

Click the button. Claude opens with the Composio connector filled in. Click Add, then go to step 2.

Add to Claude

Add manually

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

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

2. 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 Web, Desktop, and Cowork

3. Connect your Needle account

Back in Claude, ask it to connect to Needle or give it any Needle-related task.

For example, ask Claude to:

  • "List all document collections I have"
  • "Show stats for your 'research' collection"
  • "Find files in collection uploaded this week"

It will prompt you to authenticate and authorize access.

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

What is the Needle Claude Connector, and what's possible with it?

The Needle MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Needle account. It provides structured and secure access to your semantic search collections, so your agent can perform actions like creating and managing collections, uploading and deleting files, retrieving collection statistics, and listing available data sources on your behalf.

  • Collection management and creation: Easily instruct your agent to create new semantic search collections tailored to your data needs.
  • File listing and retrieval: Have your agent list and retrieve all files within a specific collection, making it simple to view and organize your indexed data.
  • File deletion from collections: Direct your agent to remove unwanted or outdated files from any collection by specifying file IDs for cleanup and maintenance.
  • Collection statistics and insights: Ask your agent to fetch real-time statistics on any collection, including document counts, index size, and timestamps to monitor your data health.
  • Browse all available collections: Let your agent page through and present all your collections, so you can quickly access, search, or manage your data resources.

Troubleshooting

1. Why does Claude not use the Composio connector for Needle?

The connector can show as connected, but Claude must use it in each Needle conversation.

  • Click + at the lower left of the chat, or type /.
  • Hover Connectors.
  • Turn on Composio.
  • Ask Claude to connect to Needle again.

2. Why does Claude show an MCP server error before Needle connects?

Claude can show Couldn't reach the MCP server or Authorization with the MCP server failed when you add the connector for Needle.

  • Check that the connector URL is https://connect.composio.dev/mcp.
  • Connectors run from Anthropic's cloud, so your device network is usually not the problem.
  • Add the connector again from Customize > Connectors, then ask Claude to connect Needle.
  • If it fails again, send the error and the ofid_ reference id to support@composio.dev.

3. Why does the Needle authorization link not work?

The Composio connector is one server. Your Needle account connects separately when Claude asks for it.

  • If the browser does not open, or the link expires, ask Claude to retry the Needle connection.
  • Composio creates a fresh Needle authorization link.
  • Open that link in your browser and finish the Needle sign-in.

4. Why do Needle actions fail after they worked before?

The Needle connection can expire or lose permission.

  • Ask Claude to inspect the Needle connection.
  • If the connection is unhealthy, disconnect it when Claude prompts you.
  • Reconnect the Needle account and retry the action.
  • If Claude shows a permission prompt, approve it before Claude changes data in Needle.
  • If the action still fails with a permission error, check that the connected account has that permission in Needle itself.

5. How do I switch to a different Needle account?

Claude can manage the Needle connection for you.

  • Ask Claude to disconnect or delete the current Needle account.
  • Ask Claude to connect Needle again.
  • Open the new Composio authorization link for Needle.
  • Sign in with the other Needle account in the browser.
  • After the account connects, ask Claude to retry the Needle task.

6. Why is my Needle connection missing in Claude Desktop or on a Team plan?

The connector belongs to your Claude account, so your Needle connection works in Claude Web, Desktop, and Cowork.

  • In Claude Desktop, open Customize > Connectors.
  • Next to Composio, click ⋮ and click Clear cache.
  • If Needle tools still do not appear, click ⋮, disconnect, remove the connector, and add it again.
  • On Team or Enterprise, an Owner or Primary Owner must enable the connector before you can connect Needle.
TOOLS

Supported Tools

Every Needle action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Add files to a collection

Tool to add files to a collection by providing file URLs.

Add Files to Local Connector

Tool to add files to a local connector by providing file metadata.

Create Collection

Tool to create a new collection.

Create Local Connector

Tool to create a local connector that monitors specified folders on a device.

Delete files from a collection

Tool to delete files from a specific collection by providing file IDs.

Delete files from local connector

Tool to delete files from a local connector by filename or file IDs.

Get Collection

Tool to retrieve details for a specific collection by its ID.

Get collection stats

Tool to retrieve statistics for a specific collection by its ID.

Get File Download URL

Tool to get a short-lived signed private download URL for a Needle file.

Get File Upload URL

Tool to get signed URLs for uploading local files to Needle.

Get local connector

Tool to retrieve details of a local connector by its ID.

List Collection Files

Tool to list all files within a specific collection by its ID.

List Collections

Tool to list collections.

List Connectors

Tool to list connectors.

List Local Connectors

Tool to list local connectors.

Search Collection

Tool to perform semantic search within a specific Needle collection and return ranked results with source references.

FRAMEWORKS

How to build Needle MCP Agent with another framework

Claude Code logo

Claude Code

Use Needle MCP with Claude Code

OpenAI Agents SDK logo

OpenAI Agents SDK

Use Needle MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

Claude Agent SDK logo

Claude Agent SDK

Use Needle MCP with Claude Agent SDK

Codex logo

Codex

Use Needle MCP with Codex

OpenClaw logo

OpenClaw

Use Needle MCP with OpenClaw

Hermes logo

Hermes

Use Needle MCP with Hermes

Atomic Agent logo

Atomic Agent

Use Needle MCP with Atomic Agent

Google ADK logo

Google ADK

Use Needle MCP with Google ADK

LangChain logo

LangChain

Use Needle MCP with LangChain

Vercel AI SDK logo

Vercel AI SDK

Use Needle MCP with Vercel AI SDK

Mastra AI logo

Mastra AI

Use Needle MCP with Mastra AI

LlamaIndex logo

LlamaIndex

Use Needle MCP with LlamaIndex

CrewAI logo

CrewAI

Use Needle MCP with CrewAI

Pydantic AI logo

Pydantic AI

Use Needle MCP with Pydantic AI

AutoGen logo

AutoGen

Use Needle MCP with AutoGen

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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

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 Needle tools.

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which Needle 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.

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 Needle data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

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