Claude + Affinity: What the Integration Can (and Can't) Do in 2026
Yes — Affinity offers an official connector, and it does read and write. Of the private-markets tools, Affinity is the most open. In April 2026 Affinity launched an official connector — an “MCP server,” which is just a standard way for an AI like Claude to plug into an app — detailed in Affinity is Building the Best MCP for Private Capital. Affinity hosts it at https://mcp.affinity.co/mcp: you paste that address into Claude (or ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot) and your AI can read from and write back to live Affinity data — query deals and relationships, and log notes and activity that appear in Affinity immediately. It’s available on the Scale, Advanced, and Enterprise tiers. On top of that, Affinity runs a genuinely self-serve API if you’d rather have a developer build your own connection.
Here’s what’s actually connected, the two ways in, the limits, and what to use if you want Affinity work that runs on its own.
The official connector: read and write, minutes to set up
Affinity’s connector is built and run by Affinity on its own servers, so there’s nothing to install and no developer needed — anyone with Affinity access can connect in a few minutes. Unlike the read-only market-data connectors, this one writes back: you can ask Claude to summarize the last quarter of touchpoints with a portfolio company and have it log a note or activity that shows up in the CRM. For a deal team living in Affinity’s relationship intelligence, that closes the loop between “ask a question” and “record the answer.”
Because Affinity hosts it, adding it on claude.ai requires a paid Claude plan; the Claude desktop app can connect it directly. The connector inherits your Affinity permissions, so Claude only touches what you can already see.
The other way in: a self-serve API
If you’d rather build automation than chat, Affinity’s API is refreshingly open for this category. You generate an API key in Settings → API (one per user), and a developer can use it to reach companies, people, opportunities, list entries, and the relationship-intelligence fields that are Affinity’s signature — the “who knows whom” strength scores. Worth knowing: the newer v2 API isn’t yet at full parity with the older v1, so some actions still live on v1 as Affinity migrates. There’s also an Affinity toolkit on Composio if you’d rather wire it through a middleware service.
So there are two sanctioned paths — the official connector for AI chat, and the API for anything you build — and both are self-serve for eligible plans, no partner gate. That’s the exception, not the norm, in private-markets software.
The limits that actually matter
Even with a read-write connector, the shape is an assistant you operate, not an agent that runs. Three limits define it:
- No triggers, no monitoring. The connector only works inside a conversation you start. There’s nothing watching for a new deal to enter a stage, an intro to get made, or a founder to reply so Claude can act. You have to be in the chat, prompting.
- Conversation-only. Claude updates a record or drafts a note when you ask; it doesn’t sit on your pipeline and follow up. Close the chat and nothing continues.
- Laptop-bound for anything scheduled. The closest thing to “on its own” is Claude’s scheduled tasks, which fire on a fixed clock, not on events, and have no inbox of its own to receive work. That’s not a 24/7 process watching your deal flow.
So Claude + Affinity is great for “log a note on this company and update the deal stage” and not built for “when a founder in my pipeline emails back, draft a reply and update the record automatically.”
If you want Affinity work that runs on its own: Carly
The moment you want something to happen around Affinity without you in the chat — email a warm intro the instant a mutual connection is found, nudge a deal that’s gone quiet, send a weekly pipeline summary to the partners — you’ve crossed past what the connector is for.
That’s where Carly fits. Affinity’s connector reads and writes, but it’s still chat-only — it acts when you’re in the conversation and never on its own. Carly adds the always-on trigger layer on top of your Affinity key:
- When a new deal enters the pipeline, Carly enriches it, drafts the outreach, and sends it — without you opening a chat.
- When a deal changes stage, Carly logs the note, updates the record, and pings the partner on the next step.
- When a warm-intro path opens to a target company, Carly drafts the intro request and queues it for your review.
- When a relationship goes dormant, Carly surfaces it and drafts the re-engagement email.
- Actually sends and updates — drafts and sends email across Gmail and Outlook with attachments, updates tasks, and writes back to Affinity.
Carly connects to 200+ tools natively (see integrations), plus Affinity through its API via your own key. AI agents start at $35/month, and steps that don’t use AI run free.
Claude vs Carly for Affinity
| Claude (official connector) | Carly | |
|---|---|---|
| Query deals & relationships | Yes | Yes |
| Log notes / update records | Yes (write-back) | Yes |
| Acts on Affinity triggers / events | No | Yes |
| Sends intros or nudges on its own | No | Yes |
| Runs on event triggers | No | Yes (cloud) |
| Sends the emails itself, not just drafts | No — drafts only | Yes |
| What it takes to set up | Paste Affinity’s connector URL (Scale+ tier) | Paste your Affinity key |
| Pricing | Pro $20+ (Affinity Scale+ tier) | AI agents from $35/mo |
Claude with Affinity’s connector is a CRM you can query and jot into from a chat. Carly is a teammate that acts on relationship and deal events as they happen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Claude work with Affinity?
Yes. Affinity hosts an official connector at https://mcp.affinity.co/mcp for its Scale, Advanced, and Enterprise tiers. Add it to Claude and it can both read and write live Affinity data — query deals and log notes or activity. Adding it on claude.ai requires a paid Claude plan.
Can Claude update records in Affinity?
Yes. Unlike read-only market-data connectors, Affinity’s connector writes back, so Claude can log notes and activity that appear in Affinity right away — inside a conversation you start.
Is there an Affinity API I can build on?
Yes, and it’s self-serve. Generate an API key in Settings → API and a developer can build against the v2 API (with some actions still on v1 during the migration).
What if I want Affinity to act on its own — send intros, nudge quiet deals?
That’s outside what the connector does; it answers inside a conversation you start. Carly fires on Affinity events and schedules 24/7 in the cloud and can email intros, nudge deals, send summaries, and update records. AI agents start at $35/month.
More: Claude connectors · Claude + DealCloud · Claude + Salesforce · Can Claude send emails · Claude vs Carly · Best AI CRM tools
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