The SmartSuite MCP Server connects Claude directly to your SmartSuite Workspace. Once connected, you can ask questions about your data in plain language, update records, and build Solutions, Tables, Views and Automations — all from a conversation, without opening SmartSuite.
Plan Availability | All Customers |
Permissions | Any Member can connect. What the assistant can do is limited by that Member's own Permissions and by the Workspace's MCP Access setting. |
Related Reading | Using the SmartSuite MCP Server with Other AI Platforms · AI Control Center: MCP Access · Roles and Permissions Overview |
What MCP Is
MCP — the Model Context Protocol — is an open standard that lets AI assistants connect to outside systems and work in them directly. It's the difference between pasting data into a chat and letting the assistant reach into SmartSuite itself.
SmartSuite offers MCP two ways:
Natively in Claude. A built-in connector. Nothing to install — search for SmartSuite in Claude's connectors, sign in, done. This article covers that.
Open source, for every other platform. A server you run yourself, published on GitHub, for ChatGPT, Cursor, Cline, IDEs, and any other MCP-compatible tool. See Using the SmartSuite MCP Server with Other AI Platforms.
What It Can Do
Once connected, Claude can work across your Workspace:
Explore your Workspace — list Solutions and Tables, and read the full structure of any Table including every Field's type, options and help text.
Work with Records — search, filter, sort and page through Records; create, update and delete them; make bulk changes in one pass.
Work around a Record — read and write comments, upload files, and check My Work.
Build — create Solutions, Tables, Fields, select options and Record forms, and arrange the Record layout into sections and tabs.
Views and Forms — read and edit both, and submit a Form.
Automations — read existing Automations as triggers, steps, loops and branches; write new ones; read run history; retry a failed run.
The set of capabilities grows regularly as more of the platform is covered.
Everything it does is attributed. Claude acts as you — it sees exactly what you see and can do exactly what you can do, never more. Every change is written to the Record's activity history under both your name and the assistant's, so there's always a clear trail.
Setting It Up in Claude
In Claude, open Customize → Connectors.
Search for SmartSuite and select it.
Click to connect. You'll be taken to SmartSuite to sign in. If your organization uses single sign-on or multi-factor authentication, you'll go through your usual sign-in.
Choose what the connection covers:
Which Workspaces Claude may use.
Whether it may write, or read only.
Confirm. Claude is connected — there's nothing to install and no keys to manage.
You can review, change, or revoke the connection later from the same Connectors screen, without signing in again.
If a Workspace doesn't appear or writes are refused, check with a Workspace Administrator — see Controlling MCP Access below.
Using It
Once connected, just ask. There's no special syntax — describe what you want the way you'd describe it to a colleague. Name the Solution or Table when you know it, and Claude will find the rest.
Ask questions of your data
"How many open Risks are there in the GRC Solution, grouped by severity?"
"Which projects have a due date in the next two weeks and no owner assigned?"
"Summarize the last five comments on the Acme onboarding Record."
This is useful for the questions that fall between your saved Views — the one-off "how many of these are there" question that isn't worth building a report for.
Update Records
"Set the Status to Complete on every task in the Q3 Migration Table that has all its checklist items resolved."
"Add a comment to Record 4821 noting that the client approved the scope change today."
"Take the notes in this email and create a Record in the Vendor Assessments Table."
Build
"Create a Table called Incidents with fields for title, severity as a single select, reported date, assignee, and a linked record to the Vendors Table."
"Add a section to the Record layout called Review, move the approver and approval date fields into it, and only show it when Status is Submitted."
"Build me a Form for the Incidents Table with the reporter's name, description, severity and an attachment field."
Audit and document what you already have
"List every Automation in this Solution and tell me which ones are disabled."
"Walk through the fields in the Contracts Table and flag any with no help text."
"Explain what the Renewal Risk formula field is actually calculating."
Draft Automations
"Create an Automation that sends a Slack message to #ops when a Record in the Incidents Table is created with severity High."
Claude can read an existing Automation to learn the shape of a trigger or action before writing a new one — so a good prompt is often "look at how the Escalation automation is built, then make one like it for Renewals."
Tips for Good Results
Name things specifically. "The Projects Table in the Client Delivery Solution" beats "my projects."
Ask it to check its work. "List what you changed" after a bulk update gives you a quick audit.
Preview before you commit on anything large. Ask for a dry run — "show me what you'd change before you change it" — on bulk updates and deletions.
Build in a sandbox first. For anything structural, work in a test Workspace or Solution and move it over once you're happy.
Review structural work. Claude is fast at scaffolding Tables, Fields, Views and Dashboards, but the details — filters, colors, display logic, spacing — are worth checking before anyone else sees them.
Give it a reference. Pointing at an existing Solution, View or Automation and saying "like this one" produces far better output than describing it from scratch.
Controlling MCP Access
Workspace Administrators control what connected assistants can do in their Workspace.
Where: Workspace Administration → AI Control Center → MCP Access → Edit. Choose an option and click Save Configuration. The current mode is shown on the MCP Access row.
Option | What it allows |
Disabled | No MCP access to this Workspace at all. |
Read-Only | Assistants can read anything the connected Member can see — Records, documents, structure and settings — but can't create, change or delete anything. |
Read & Write | Assistants act as the Member who connected them and can change data and structure — Records, Fields, Tables, Views, Automations. They're limited by that Member's own Permissions. |
"Write" covers structure, not just Record values. In Read & Write, an assistant can create Fields, Tables, Views, Forms and Automations. Choose it deliberately.
Two gates, and the stricter one wins
Workspace setting | Member granted read-only | Member granted read & write |
Disabled | No access | No access |
Read-Only | Read only | Read only |
Read & Write | Read only | Read & write — within that Member's own Permissions |
Setting the Workspace to Read & Write doesn't give write access to everyone; it permits it. Each Member still chooses it on their own connection and is still bound by their own Role and Permissions.
The reverse is what makes this useful: switching to Read-Only or Disabled immediately narrows every existing connection, with nobody having to reconnect.
A common pattern: Read & Write on a sandbox or build Workspace, Read-Only on production.
Security
Claude acts as you. It can't see or change anything your Role and Permissions don't already allow.
Every change is attributed in the Record's activity history to both you and the assistant.
Your Workspace Administrator sets the ceiling with MCP Access, and can lower it at any time.
You choose the scope when you connect — which Workspaces, and read or write — and can change or revoke it at any time.
Workspaces hosted in the European Union are served from their own region, so MCP traffic for an EU Workspace stays within it. See Choosing Your Data Region.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to install anything? No. In Claude, the connector is built in — you add it from Connectors and sign in. Other AI platforms use the open-source server; see Using the SmartSuite MCP Server with Other AI Platforms.
Does this work with AI assistants other than Claude? Claude is the only platform with a native, built-in SmartSuite connector. Any other MCP-compatible assistant can connect using the open-source server from GitHub.
Can Claude see data I don't have access to? No. It acts as you and is bound by your Role and Permissions.
Can my administrator see what Claude did? Yes. Every change appears in the Record's activity history, attributed to both you and the assistant.
Can I connect more than one Workspace? Yes. You choose which Workspaces the connection covers when you authorize it, and you can change that later.
I can read but not write — why? Either your connection was granted read-only, or the Workspace's MCP Access is set to Read-Only or Disabled. Whichever is stricter applies.