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Connect Claude to SquadBear

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Add SquadBear as a custom MCP connector so Claude can act on your behalf

Claude, and any other MCP-capable agent, reads and acts on your SquadBear workspace over MCP, under your own permissions.

How

  1. Your MCP endpoint is https://app.squadbear.com/mcp. The in-app Connect an agent page renders the same endpoint for the origin you opened it on, with copy-ready snippets for Claude Code and Gemini CLI.
  2. In claude.ai or the Claude desktop app, go to Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector (custom connectors need a paid Claude plan). Name it "SquadBear" and paste the endpoint.
  3. Claude opens the SquadBear sign-in. Log in, then choose which scopes this connection may use. The everyday preset covers leave, approvals, directory, time, attendance and assigned tasks. Modules and your role still restrict what is available. Select a specialist preset in Agents for HR administration, reports, processes, documents or facilitation, then copy its URL and reconnect. Changing a preset never widens an existing grant silently.
  4. In any chat, enable SquadBear under the search & tools menu.

squadbear.com/agent-setup/prompt.md is one fetchable guide carrying the endpoint and the per-client connect steps, so an agent can set itself up from that URL alone.

The agent acts as you - with your role's permissions, nothing more. A manager's connected agent can approve requests for their reports; an employee's only where a workflow names them as approver. Every action it takes lands in the same audit trail as the web app and the REST API, readable at Workspace settings → Audit log.

Ask it get_context first. It returns your identity, workspace, timezone and connection permissions. get_capabilities explains unavailable operations and lists any missing scopes.

Add one connection: /mcp, or /mcp/chatgpt for ChatGPT's curated distribution. On the authorization screen choose Everyday work, Manage my team, HR administration, or your own permission selection. Presets select OAuth scopes; they do not create new connections. The tool list includes all operations allowed by those scopes, your role, enabled modules and plan. It is not capped at 24 tools.

To add permissions later, reauthorize the same connection with the required scopes and refresh its tool list. Your client must request the extra scopes: the consent page cannot add scopes outside its signed authorization request. Some clients call this reconnecting, but the endpoint URL remains the same.

Keep authentication Always required. Automatic OAuth registration (DCR) and pre-registered clients are supported. Hosted client metadata (CIMD) is available only when this deployment advertises it and has its secure metadata gateway configured. Never choose no authentication to simplify HR access.

Disconnecting in Connected apps invalidates the connection on its next MCP request, including outstanding access tokens. A request already executing may finish.

Workspace settings, leave-policy changes, erasure and process starts require a review in SquadBear. The first tool call returns a ten-minute review link; after you approve, the assistant repeats the exact arguments with approvalId. Changed arguments or target state are refused. Ordinary actions follow the host's approval settings and the normal domain rules.

Example prompts

  • "How many vacation days do I have left?"
  • "Request next Friday off."
  • "Log 2 hours on Platform v2 today."
  • "Who's out on my team next week?"
  • "Start a Pulse 5 health check for the Platform team, anonymous, and open it."

Logging hours needs time:write and the Time module. Opening a health check needs the facilitation pack, health:write and the Team Health module.

Scripts and automations

For code that calls SquadBear directly, create a workspace API key at Developer → API keys (prefix sbk_, scoped, shown once) and use the REST API - the interactive reference lives at app.squadbear.com/api/v1/docs. API keys use their own, separate scope list from MCP connections.

Worked example

Marta at Northlake connects Claude using the steps above, picking read-only leave and team scopes to start. Her first message is "How many vacation days do I have left?" - Claude calls get_context to confirm it resolved to her, then get_leave_balance, and answers with the number on her ledger.