Claude connectors for your notes: connect Claude in a minute

Updated

Claude connectors let Claude reach a service you already use and work inside it. Connect your notes, and Claude stops being a chat you copy things out of. It writes the shopping list straight into your notes, updates the training plan where you keep it, and finds the note you wrote last month when you ask for it.

What a connector is

Claude connectors are links between Claude and other services. Once you add one, Claude can use that service in any conversation: look something up, add something, change something. You sign in to the service once. You can remove the connector again whenever you like.

Some connectors come ready in Claude's list. Others you add yourself by pasting an address the service gives you. Underneath, this runs on an open standard called MCP. You do not need to know anything about it. From your side it is a web address and a sign-in.

Why connect Claude to your notes

Claude is good at producing lists, plans and drafts. The trouble is where they end up. A packing list in a chat is gone the moment the chat scrolls away. A packing list in your notes is there on your phone when you are standing in the hallway with a half-packed bag.

It works the other way too. Your notes already hold things Claude would find useful: the recipe you tweak every time, the list of books someone recommended, the plan you started in spring. With a connector, you can say "read my running plan and move the long run to Sunday" and Claude edits the note you already have instead of writing a new one.

How to connect Claude to Very Simple Notes

  1. In Claude, open Customize, then Connectors.
  2. Press + and choose Add custom connector.
  3. Name it Very Simple Notes and paste https://verysimplenotes.com/mcp. Press Add.
  4. Press Connect and sign in with Apple or Google, the same account you use in the app.
  5. Try something small: "Put milk, eggs and coffee on my shopping list."

That is the whole setup. The connection works in Claude on the web, on desktop and on your phone. Claude's Free plan allows one custom connector, and Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans can add custom connectors too.

If you use Claude Code, add it from the terminal and run /mcp to sign in:

claude mcp add --transport http very-simple-notes https://verysimplenotes.com/mcp

What Claude can do in your notes

  • Find a note. List your notes, including archived ones, and read any of them in full.
  • Write a new note. A recipe, a packing list, meeting points, a gift idea list. Checklists come out as real checklists you can tick off in the app.
  • Update a note you already have. Add three items to the shopping list, rewrite week two of a plan, tick off what is done.
  • Star or archive. Star the note that matters this week, or archive a list you are finished with.
  • Delete a note. Only when you ask for it. Archiving is the gentle option.

Everything Claude writes shows up in the app like any other note: bold, lists and checklists, with no markup in sight. You can edit it by hand afterwards, and Claude will see your changes the next time it reads the note.

Good things to ask

  • "Make a shopping list for these three dinners and put it in my notes."
  • "Read my note called Garden and tell me what I planned for this month."
  • "Add the book title from this conversation to my reading list note."
  • "Turn my messy packing note into a checklist, grouped by bag."
  • "Archive every shopping list older than a month."

One habit helps a lot: ask Claude to update a note rather than create one. One shopping list you keep for years beats forty that each hold a single week. Claude is told to check for an existing note first, but naming the note makes it certain.

What stays yours

A connector gives Claude hands, not ownership. Your notes stay in your account, hosted in Amsterdam, in the EU. They are not used to train AI models and there are no ads.

  • You can revoke it. Every connection shows up in the app under Account, with its name. Remove it there and Claude loses access at once.
  • Deleting is your call. Claude can delete a note, but it is instructed to do so only when you ask. Archive is always there as the softer option.
  • Reading never locks. Writing needs an active subscription. If it lapses, Claude can still read your notes, and nothing is deleted.

Keep the notes themselves simple

A connector works best on top of notes that are easy to read. Short titles, one topic per note, lists where lists make sense. That is good advice without an agent too; the guide on minimalist note taking goes through it. When your notes are plain, Claude finds the right one faster and edits it without making a mess.

Very Simple Notes is a simple notes app built for exactly this: notes and checklists you write in seconds, synced with Apple or Google sign-in, and a connector address you paste into Claude once. The app is on iPhone today. It costs $0.99 a month, and the first month is free.

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