Kestrel

Publishing

Connect Claude

Kestrel version 1.18.0

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Connecting Claude to Kestrel lets you publish by asking Claude. It drafts, tests, and schedules posts as you, and its changes show as yours, via Claude.

Your Kestrel instance has to allow this first, as Allow Claude to connect describes.

How you connect depends on where you talk to Claude:

  • In Claude Desktop or claude.ai, add Kestrel as a connector.
  • In Claude Code, add Kestrel as a connector, or sign in with the Kestrel CLI to use the API directly.

Claude Desktop or claude.ai

  1. In Claude, go to Customize → Connectors, select Add, then Add custom connector.
  2. Name it, and enter your publication’s address followed by /api/mcp, such as https://newsletter.example.com/api/mcp.
  3. Under OAuth client, choose Register automatically.
  4. Select Add, then sign in the way you do for the dashboard, and approve the sign-in.

On a Team or Enterprise plan, an Owner of your Claude organization adds the connector under Organization settings → Connectors instead, and you then select Connect on it. Anthropic’s custom connectors guide has the details.

To check it works, ask Claude what your publication is called.

Claude Code

Claude Code can use the same connector as Claude Desktop and claude.ai. To reach the whole API instead, images included, sign Claude Code in with the Kestrel CLI:

  1. Run this, with your publication’s address:

    npx kestrel login https://newsletter.example.com

  2. Approve the sign-in in the browser that opens. The terminal then says who you’re signed in as.

The sign-in stays on your computer. Opened in your instance’s repository, Claude Code then calls Kestrel’s API as you through kestrel api, the way gh calls GitHub, following your instance’s instructions for Claude. Its changes show as yours, via Claude Code.

How long a sign-in lasts

The sign-in renews itself while you use Claude, until your instance’s grant session ends, a week if it follows the setup guide. Then Claude asks you to approve a new one.

To disconnect, remove the connector under Customize → Connectors. To sign out of the Kestrel CLI, run npx kestrel logout.

Working with Claude

Ask Claude in plain words, the way you’d ask a colleague, and ask it what it can do: it knows its tools, and reads these pages from Kestrel. For example:

  • “Proofread my draft titled ‘First frost’ and schedule it to go out Friday at 7am.”
  • “Add jack@example.com to the list.”
  • “Import the subscribers in this CSV from my old newsletter.”

Whatever Claude is asked, Kestrel holds these for any client:

  • Every send waits out the review window, and you can cancel it until it goes out.
  • What goes out is exactly the copy that was scheduled. A scheduled post is locked.
  • No one is mailed twice, and only confirmed subscribers receive a post.
  • An unsubscribe is final until the reader subscribes again.
  • No one’s edit is overwritten. A save based on an older version is refused.
  • Only you can let an import grow a scheduled send, in the dashboard.

Changes Claude makes show in the dashboard as yours, such as “Scheduled by you@example.com via Claude”.