Connecting Attio CRM and Google Drive to Claude Desktop via MCP

People

Donavan

Idea

Set up MCP servers for CRM and Google Drive to connect them directly to Claude Desktop - giving Claude real-time access to our deal pipeline, contacts, and documents without copy-pasting or context-switching.

Details

  • MCP (Model Context Protocol) for connecting AI assistants to external tools and data sources. It lets Claude Desktop talk directly to services like CRMs and file storage through a local server
  • Testing Attio because it seems flexible enough to model specific workflows with custom objects like Portfolio Companies alongside the standard Companies, People, and Deals, plus lists for VC Deal Flow, LP Fundraising, Recruiting, and Investors
  • The Attio MCP server gives Claude full read/write access to our workspace - it can query and create records, manage list entries, attach notes and tasks to companies or people
  • For Google Drive, the MCP server exposes file search, folder navigation, and full CRUD on Docs, Sheets, and Slides - Claude can create a formatted Google Doc or update a spreadsheet without me ever leaving the chat
  • Setup for both is done through Claude Desktop's MCP configuration (in claude_desktop_config.json) - point it at the MCP server package and provide your API keys, and Claude picks up the new tools on next launch
  • Huge value add is time savings for manual data entry work; additional value shows up in cross-tool workflows - for example, asking Claude to look up a company in Attio, pull the latest notes, then search Granola for notes (much simpler add-on than these two) then draft a follow-up memo and save it as a Google Doc, all in one conversation
  • Attio's MCP server supports the full API surface: records, lists, entries, notes, tasks, threads, comments, workspace members, and webhooks
  • Google Drive's MCP server goes beyond basic file ops - it can format cells and text in Sheets, apply conditional formatting, create Slides presentations with styled shapes and text boxes, and format Doc paragraphs with alignment and heading styles
  • Both servers require API tokens with appropriate scopes - for Attio you need a workspace-level API key, and for Google Drive you go through OAuth to grant file access

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