How to Connect Claude to NetDocuments with the New MCP Connector

If your firm uses NetDocuments and you’ve been wondering when you’d be able to ask Claude questions about your own documents — that day is here. NetDocuments has released MCP via ndConnect, a secure integration that lets Claude search your repository and read documents on your behalf, all within the permissions you already have.

A quick note before we dive in: in Three Ways to Use Claude with NetDocuments, I covered three approaches that work today with any Claude account and any NetDocuments tier — the Claude Word add-in, the NetDocuments browser extension, and Claude in Chrome. The key difference is who does the fetching. With those three options, you bring the document to Claude: you open it in Word, send it through the extension, or view it in your browser. With the MCP connector, Claude goes and finds the documents for you — you describe what you need, and it searches your entire repository, retrieves the relevant documents, and answers with citations. That deeper integration is what requires the higher licensing tier and the setup below. If you’re not on ndMAX Enterprise yet, start with the three options in that post; if you are, read on.

What you’ll need first

Two licensing requirements trip people up, so let’s get them out of the way:

On the NetDocuments side, you need AI 300 (ndMAX Enterprise). This is the top-tier NetDocuments AI package, and every user who connects needs an active AI 300 subscription.   The feature is also currently in limited private preview, so your organization must be approved first. If you haven’t been, request access through NetDocuments’ preview form or contact your NetDocuments representative.

On the Claude side, you need a paid plan. Claude Pro or Max works for individuals who can connect directly in their own settings. On Claude Team or Enterprise, an organization Owner adds the connector once, and everyone connects with their own credentials. The free Claude plan is not supported.

Step 1: Enable MCP in the NetDocuments Admin Console

A repository administrator does this once for the whole firm.

1. Open the NetDocuments Admin Console and go to the Security Center.
2. Click the ndConnect tile. (Is it grayed out? Your repository hasn’t been provisioned for the preview yet — contact your NetDocuments rep.
   
3. Check Enable MCP for this repository and click Save.

That’s the entire NetDocuments side.

Step 2: Add the connector in Claude

On Claude Team or Enterprise, an Owner or Primary Owner adds the connector for the organization:

1. Go to Organization Settings > Connectors.
2. Click Add, choose All Available, and search for NetDocuments.
3. Select the data center your repository is hosted in (US, CA, UK, DE, or AU) and click Continue. If you’re not sure, your NetDocuments URL gives it away — vault.netvoyage.com is US, eu.netdocuments.com is UK/EU, and so on.
4. On the configuration screen, decide whether members need approval to use the connector. If you want everyone to be able to use it right away, choose no restrictions; otherwise, users will have to request permission before connecting.
5. Save. The connector now appears for every member of your organization.

One more setting worth changing: by default, Claude asks for your approval every time it searches or reads a document in NetDocuments. In the same connector settings, set both NetDocuments permissions to Always allow. You’ll skip the confirmation prompts, and Claude can search and read in one pass instead of stopping to ask each time.

On Claude Pro or Max, there’s no admin step — skip straight to Step 3.

If NetDocuments doesn’t appear in the connectors store, you can add it manually: click Add, hover over Custom, select Web, and paste the MCP endpoint for your data region. For US-hosted repositories, that’s https://web-api.us.netdocuments.app/connect/mcp (swap us for ca, uk, de, or au to match your region). Make sure there’s no trailing slash.

Step 3: Each user connects their own account

Adding the connector doesn’t connect anyone’s account — each user links their own NetDocuments credentials. It’s a one-time step:

1. In Claude, go to Customize > Connectors.
2. Find NetDocuments and click Connect.
3. Sign in with your NetDocuments credentials and approve the connection.

During authorization, you’ll be asked to grant two permissions: “read” and “organize.” Only “read” is active — “organize” is a placeholder so future capabilities won’t force everyone to re-authorize. If your security team asks, this is expected and documented by NetDocuments.

To use NetDocuments in a conversation, click the + button at the bottom left of the chat, choose Connectors, and enable NetDocuments. Then just ask: “Summarize the Smith & Co. engagement letter.”

If something goes wrong

The two most common hiccups both look like sign-in problems but aren’t:

“You don’t have access to this resource.” This always means a licensing or toggle issue — either the user doesn’t have AI 300, or MCP isn’t enabled on their repository.

“Authorization with the MCP server failed” (with an ofid_ reference code). The sign-in worked, but the server rejected the request — usually because the user’s default cabinet lives in a repository where MCP isn’t enabled. Check it under your name (top right) > Settings > Account Information in NetDocuments. If you change your default cabinet, log out and back in.

The bottom line

Fifteen minutes of setup gets your firm a research assistant that actually knows your documents — and respects every permission, ethical wall, and DLP rule you already have in place. All activity is logged in the NetDocuments Consolidated Activity Log, tagged so your admins can audit exactly what was searched and retrieved.

Need help getting your firm approved for the preview or rolling this out to your attorneys? That’s what we do. Get in touch with Optiable.