Add the connector
In Claude, open settings, go to connectors and add a custom connector with the URL https://nilyo.com/mcp. Choose OAuth: Claude registers itself and opens a browser once so you sign in and authorize the accounts it may use. It works the same on claude.ai and in the desktop app, and Claude Code adds it from the command line. No API key is generated and nothing is written into a JSON config by hand.
Let it read several times before it writes
The useful pattern with Claude is to ask for the outcome and leave the path open. “Prepare my follow-up with Ada” is enough: it opens the profile, reads the conversation, checks whether an invitation is already pending, notices you answered last, and tells you there is nothing to follow up on — rather than drafting a message you should not send. That loop is worth more than any single tool, and it is the reason to let it read broadly and write narrowly.
“Prepare my follow-up with Ada: check what we already said before drafting anything.”
“Look at the last twenty people who commented on my post and tell me which three are worth a real answer.”
Put it in a Project with your own instructions
A Claude Project keeps context across conversations, which is where the connector stops being a gadget. Put your rules in the project instructions — who you never contact cold, the tone of your replies, the accounts to use for what, when to ask before sending — and every conversation in that project inherits them. The tools stay the same; the judgement around them becomes yours instead of being re-explained in every chat.
Premium seats stay explicit
Sales Navigator and Recruiter are separate products on the same account, with their own searches and their own inboxes, and Claude is told which ones your account actually holds rather than assuming. A Sales Navigator search is a different tool from a standard search, and a message started from a Recruiter inbox is a different object from an ordinary one. Nothing silently downgrades to Classic, because a message sent from the wrong product is the wrong message.
“Search Sales Navigator for heads of operations in Lyon, then check which ones we already talked to.”
One connection, several accounts
LinkedIn is rarely alone in a real request. Once WhatsApp, a mailbox or your calendar are connected too, the same conversation can cross them: prepare a meeting from the calendar, look up each guest on LinkedIn, pull what you last said to them by email. Claude picks the accounts it needs from the tools it has, which is how a briefing gets built in one prompt instead of four copy-pastes.
“Who am I meeting tomorrow, what do I know about them on LinkedIn, and what did we last say by email?”
When a tool does not show up
If the LinkedIn tools are missing, check the connector is enabled for the conversation you are in — a chat started before the connector was added does not see it. If Claude answers that it cannot reach the account, the session expired and the reconnection link is in the answer. And if it declines a write with a limit message, the daily budget for that account is reached: it resets, and pushing through it is the one thing that actually endangers a LinkedIn account.
Common questions
Can Claude use LinkedIn?
Yes, through an MCP connector such as Nilyo, once you authorize your own LinkedIn account. Claude then has tools for search, profiles, network, conversations, invitations, posts and comments.
Does it work on claude.ai, the desktop app and Claude Code?
Yes. It is the same server URL and the same OAuth sign-in, and the same connected account is reachable from all of them.
Is a paid Claude plan required?
You need a plan that allows custom connectors. On the LinkedIn side a standard account is enough; Sales Navigator and Recruiter only matter if you hold those seats.
Will Claude send messages without asking?
Writes are explicit actions it has to choose, and ambiguity blocks them: if several people match a name, nothing is sent and you are asked. You can also set the rule in a Project instruction to always confirm before sending.
How is this different from connecting LinkedIn to ChatGPT?
The account and the tools are identical — it is one connection, reachable from both. The difference is the client: Claude tends to chain more reads before acting, ChatGPT offers apps and scheduled tasks.
How LinkedIn works with Nilyo
Connection. Secure hosted sign-in (your LinkedIn credentials go to LinkedIn, never to the agent). Sales Navigator and Recruiter are detected automatically when your account has them.
What your agent can do. People and company search, profile lookup from a name or URL, your network and invitations, private conversations (classic, Sales Navigator, Recruiter inboxes), posts, comments and reactions, job postings and applicants, Recruiter projects.
Pacing and safety. About 100 actions per day per account, profile views and searches included; calls are serialized so an agent can never run LinkedIn requests in parallel.
- Profile URLs are resolved to stable profile IDs before any action.
- Invitations carry an optional note of up to 300 characters.
- Private or restricted profiles return an explicit “not accessible” result instead of a retry loop.
All LinkedIn guides
Related guides
Give Nilyo to your agent.
Paste one setup link. Your agent can guide OAuth, account connection and the first useful action.