What you can do

Once connected, you can ask Claude to work with your Inbound Connect data using natural language. Claude decides which tools to call on your behalf and always acts within the permissions of your own account. Typical requests include:

• "What's my current account balance?"
• "Show me my bookings for next week."
• "Book a timeslot at Port Melbourne for tomorrow morning."
• "Move my booking BKG-10241 to Thursday at 09:00."
• "Cancel my booking for tomorrow — the container was held at origin."
• "When is the quietest time to book at DP World this week?"
• "Check cargo availability for container MSCU1234567."
• "What's the vessel schedule for Melbourne and Geelong?"
• "Search for empty‑park release R-88421 at ACFS."
• "Pre‑process bookings BKG-1001 and BKG-1002 with AI."

The exact set of capabilities you see depends on your account edition and user permissions (see Access and permissions).

Requirements

To use the Inbound Connect connector you need:

1. An active Inbound Connect account with a username and password (the same credentials you use at your tenant portal, e.g. https://yourcompany.inboundconnect.com).
2. A Claude plan that supports custom connectors (Claude Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise). Availability of custom connectors may depend on your organization's settings.
3. The relevant edition and permissions for the actions you want to perform. For example, only transporter accounts can create bookings, and only premium transporter accounts see the booking‑density heatmap.

No API keys, tokens, or manual configuration are required — you sign in through Inbound Connect's secure login page during setup.

Connecting the connector in Claude

You add Inbound Connect as a custom connector using its server URL. The steps below apply to Claude on the web and desktop; menu labels may vary slightly by platform and plan.

1. Open Settings → Connectors in Claude.
2. Choose Add custom connector (also shown as Browse connectors → Add custom connector).
3. Enter the connector details:
   • Name: Inbound Connect
   • Remote MCP server URL: https://mcp.inboundconnect.com
4. Select Add. Claude registers the server and detects that it requires authentication.
5. Select Connect. A secure Inbound Connect sign‑in window opens.
6. Sign in with your Inbound Connect username and password and, if prompted, complete two‑factor authentication.
7. Review and approve the access request. You are consenting to let Claude act with your account's permissions through the connector.
8. You're returned to Claude with the connector shown as Connected. Its available tools now appear in the connector list.

To start using it, open a conversation and ask something like "Show me my Inbound Connect bookings for this week." Claude will request your approval before running any tool that changes data.

Tip — prompt shortcut: Transporter accounts also get a guided /create-booking prompt (a slash command) that walks through creating a booking step by step. Prompt shortcuts appear in clients that support MCP prompts.

Disconnecting

You can disconnect at any time from Settings → Connectors → Inbound Connect → Disconnect. This stops Claude from accessing your account. You can also revoke access from within your Inbound Connect account.

Authentication and security

The connector uses the OAuth 2.1 authorization code flow with PKCE. Claude never sees or stores your Inbound Connect password — you authenticate directly with Inbound Connect, which returns a short‑lived access token to Claude.

Key security characteristics:

• You sign in on Inbound Connect's own login page. Credentials are entered only on Inbound Connect, never in Claude.
• Scoped, short‑lived tokens. Access tokens are issued for a limited lifetime and are bound specifically to the MCP server (audience‑restricted). Refresh happens automatically while your connection is active.
• Standards‑based discovery. The server implements OAuth 2.0 Protected Resource Metadata (RFC 9728) and Resource Indicators (RFC 8707), and supports PKCE‑protected authorization code flow. Claude discovers the authorization server automatically — no manual endpoint configuration.
• Revocable at any time. Disconnecting in Claude or revoking the session in Inbound Connect immediately stops further access.
• Acts as you. The connector operates strictly within your user account's edition, features, and permissions. It cannot see or do anything you couldn't do yourself in the Inbound Connect web app.

Data handling

• The connector reads and writes only the Inbound Connect data your account is permitted to access (your bookings, your facility's bookings, your tenant's schedules, balances, and inquiries).
• Data is exchanged directly between Claude and Inbound Connect over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection for the purpose of fulfilling your requests.
• Inbound Connect's handling of your data is governed by the Inbound Connect Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
• Content you share with Claude is additionally subject to Anthropic's usage policies.

Capabilities

The connector exposes the following capabilities. Which ones are available to you depends on your account edition and permissions — Claude automatically only sees the tools you're entitled to use.

Bookings

View my bookings — Retrieves bookings for your account within an optional date range. Facilities see inbound bookings for their site, and transporters see their own bookings. You can optionally include canceled and completed bookings and filter by booking number or facility.

Create a booking (Transporter / Premium Transporter) — Creates a new booking at a facility. Claude reserves the requested timeslot, validates and converts the field values you supply (including facility‑specific lookup and search fields), runs the facility's booking validation rules, and confirms the booking. Supporting files (such as a delivery order) can be attached where the service requires them. Claude will ask you for any mandatory information it doesn't already have.

Update a booking (Transporter / Premium Transporter) — Modifies an existing booking. You can move it to a different date and/or timeslot and change field values; anything you don't mention keeps its current value. Attachments can't be changed through the connector — use the web app for that.

Cancel a booking — Cancels an existing booking. A cancellation reason is always required. For transporters, canceling after the facility's cancellation cutoff time may incur no refund and a penalty fee; in that case Claude will ask you to explicitly confirm before proceeding.

Pre‑process bookings with AI (Facility, with AI pre‑processing enabled) — Runs one or more bookings through your facility's AI validation rules and returns a result per booking: a pass percentage, per‑rule success/failure details, field values extracted from the booking and its attachments, and whether the booking is ready to be marked as pre‑processing complete.

Timeslots and facilities

List facilities for bookings — Returns the facilities available to you for making bookings.

List services at a facility — Returns the bookable services offered by a given facility.

Find timeslots for a booking — Returns available timeslots for a facility, service, date, and (optionally) capacity pool.

Timeslot booking heatmap (Premium Transporter) — Returns a heatmap of booking density across a date range (up to 10 days) so you can identify the quietest, least‑congested times to book. Ask questions like "When is the best time to book?" or "When should I avoid peak times?" and Claude will highlight the quietest slots.

Vessel schedules

Get vessel schedule — Returns vessel schedules — including estimated arrival (ETA) and departure (ETD) — for one or more ports of operation and/or terminals. If a name doesn't match, Claude can help you pick from the valid options.

Cargo and LCL availability

Check cargo / LCL availability — Looks up cargo or LCL availability for a container number (ISO 6346 format, e.g. MSCU1234567). Returns facility availability dates, storage dates, vessel and voyage details, and estimated arrival dates. Defaults to your account's country if you don't specify one.

Empty‑park inquiries

(Requires the inquiry permission on your account.)

List facilities supporting inquiries — Returns the facilities that support empty‑depot inquiries.

Search empty‑depot release — Finds an empty‑depot release by facility name and release number.

Search container acceptance — Checks container acceptance at a facility for one or more container numbers.

Account

Get account balance (Facility / Transporter / Premium Transporter) — Returns the current account balance for your tenant, along with the applicable currency.

Access and permissions

The connector applies deny‑by‑default access control. When you connect, it inspects your account and exposes only the tools your edition, enabled features, and user permissions allow. If a capability isn't available to you, it simply won't appear to Claude.

Account editions:

Capability availability by edition:

¹ Requires the AI booking pre‑processing feature to be enabled for your facility.
² Requires the inquiry permission to be granted to your user.

In addition to edition and feature checks, each capability also requires the corresponding user permission — the same permissions that govern what you can do in the Inbound Connect web app (for example, permission to create, edit, or cancel bookings). If your user lacks a permission, that capability won't be available even if your edition supports it.

Safe‑by‑design behavior

• Confirmation for changes. Claude requests your approval before running any tool that creates, updates, or cancels data.
• Cancellation cutoffs. For transporter cancellations past the facility's cutoff, the connector will not proceed until you explicitly confirm you accept a possible no‑refund and penalty fee.
• Validation first. Create and update operations reserve the timeslot, validate your field values, and run the facility's booking rules before confirming; if a booking can't proceed, the reservation is released automatically.
• No credential exposure. Your password is entered only on Inbound Connect's login page and is never shared with Claude.

Troubleshooting

The connector shows tools I don't expect / is missing tools.
Tools are filtered to your edition, enabled features, and permissions. If a capability is missing, confirm your account edition and that your user has the relevant permission in the Inbound Connect web app.

I'm asked to sign in again.
Access tokens are short‑lived and refresh automatically while connected. If your session was revoked or expired, reconnect from Settings → Connectors → Inbound Connect → Connect.

Sign‑in fails or the account is inactive.
Make sure you can sign in to your Inbound Connect tenant portal directly. If your account is inactive, contact support (below).

A booking won't create or update.
The facility's validation rules may be blocking it, or a mandatory field may be missing or invalid. Claude will relay the validation messages — supply the requested details and try again.

Nothing happens / connection errors.
Confirm the server URL is exactly https://mcp.inboundconnect.com, then remove and re‑add the connector.

Support

• General support: [email protected]
• Website: https://inboundconnect.com
• Contact form: https://inboundconnect.com/contact