Set up Cloud Butler

About five minutes, once. You need an Apple Account with two-factor authentication turned on, and an AI app that supports custom MCP connectors.

Before you start

  1. Make an app-specific password for Cloud Butler. It takes under a minute: how to make one. Keep it on screen; you'll paste it in a moment.
  2. Copy the connector address. Every AI app uses the same one:
    https://mcp.cloudbutler.app/mcp

Already connected with the earlier address, https://icloud.hyvemind.cloud/mcp? You don't need to do anything: existing connections on that address keep working. Use the address above for every new connection.

Claude

Works in Claude on the web and in the Claude desktop and mobile apps. Custom connectors are set up on the web or desktop app.

  1. In Claude, open Customize → Connectors (on the web: claude.ai/customize/connectors).
  2. Click + Add, then Add custom connector.
  3. Name it Cloud Butler, paste the connector address, and click Continue.
  4. Claude detects that Cloud Butler uses sign-in. Keep the suggested choices (sign-in on, and "Use Claude's published identity" for the OAuth client), click Continue, then Add.
  5. Click Connect on the Cloud Butler connector. The Cloud Butler sign-in page opens.
  6. In a chat, click the + button at the lower left, choose Connectors and switch Cloud Butler on for that conversation.

Claude asks for your approval before it uses a connector tool. Choose Allow always only for tools you trust to run without asking, such as reading your calendar, and keep approving one at a time for anything that sends, changes or deletes. You can switch individual tools off in the chat's tools menu. See approvals in your AI app.

On Claude's Free plan you can add one custom connector. In Research mode Claude may run connector tools without asking each time, so switch Cloud Butler off there if you don't want that.

Menu names follow Anthropic's help article on custom connectors, which Anthropic updates from time to time. If a menu looks different, that article has the current names.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT adds custom MCP connectors in Developer mode. Which plans can turn it on is set by OpenAI.

  1. In ChatGPT, open Settings → Apps (called Apps & Connectors on some accounts) → Advanced settings, and turn on Developer mode.
  2. Back in Apps, choose Create (or Add app).
  3. Name it Cloud Butler, paste the connector address, and choose OAuth for authentication. Confirm that you trust the app, then click Create.
  4. The Cloud Butler sign-in page opens. Sign in there.
  5. In a chat, open the + menu, choose Developer mode (or More) and pick Cloud Butler for that conversation.

ChatGPT asks you to confirm tool calls that change something. Cloud Butler marks every tool that writes, deletes or reaches outside your account, so those confirmations appear where they matter.

Steps follow OpenAI's help article on Developer mode. OpenAI changes these menus often; the article has the current steps. We could not re-read it on 14 November 2026, so check it if a menu name differs.

Other MCP apps

Any app that supports remote MCP servers over HTTPS with OAuth sign-in can use Cloud Butler, for example Claude Code, VS Code, Cursor or Goose. Add the connector address as a remote (HTTP) server and sign in when the app opens the browser. Technical details for developers:

  • Transport: Streamable HTTP at /mcp.
  • Sign-in: OAuth 2.1 with PKCE (S256), dynamic client registration and client ID metadata documents. Discovery at /.well-known/oauth-authorization-server and /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource/mcp.
  • Access tokens last one hour and are refreshed by your app. A connection unused for 30 days expires.
  • The calendar, inbox and contact panels use MCP Apps. Apps without MCP Apps support get the same results as text.

The Cloud Butler sign-in page

When your AI app sends you to Cloud Butler, the page shows which app is asking and where access will be sent. Check that it names the app you are setting up.

  1. Choose what the app may do. Every kind of access the app asked for is listed with a tick box, grouped by area: Calendar, Contacts and Mail, then iCloud Drive, Reminders, Notes, Photos, Find My and Devices (the full list is in approvals and safety). The public service doesn't offer the Drive, Reminders, Notes, Photos, Find My or Devices tools yet, so those boxes give no extra access today. Untick anything you don't want to allow: for example, leave "Send mail as you" unticked to make a read-and-draft-only connection. Unticking reading also unticks changing the same data. You need at least one box ticked; to give no access, choose Cancel.
  2. Apple ID: the email address of your Apple Account.
  3. iCloud Mail address: only if your iCloud Mail address is different from your Apple ID (for example your Apple ID is a Gmail address and your mail is you@icloud.com).
  4. App-specific password: the one you made for Cloud Butler, in the form abcd-efgh-ijkl-mnop. Never your normal Apple ID password.
  5. Click Connect. Cloud Butler checks the password with Apple right away (this takes a few seconds) and tells you plainly if Apple did not accept it.

You return to your AI app, connected. To change what you allowed later, disconnect and connect again.

Check it works

In a chat with Cloud Butler switched on, ask:

  • What can Cloud Butler reach in my iCloud right now?
  • What's on my calendar this week?
  • Show my unread mail from today.

The first one makes your agent call icloud_get_capabilities, which lists which services are connected and which Apple account is signed in. If anything fails, see troubleshooting.

Teams and organizations

On Claude Team and Enterprise plans an organization Owner first adds Cloud Butler under Organization settings → Connectors (Add → Custom → Web). Each member then goes to Customize → Connectors, clicks Connect and signs in with their own Apple Account and their own app-specific password. Every person's connection, data and keys are kept separate; nobody in the organization can reach another member's iCloud through Cloud Butler. In ChatGPT Business and Enterprise workspaces, an admin may need to allow Developer mode apps first.