---
title: "Connect an AI assistant"
description: "Give a local assistant access to the workspaces you choose, with a separate choice for edits."
updated: "2026-10-14"
canonical: https://docs.recordstead.app/assistants/connect-an-assistant
---

# Connect an AI assistant

An assistant running on your Mac can answer questions about your meetings.
Access is off until you consent. What an assistant reads **may leave your Mac**
through that assistant; [check the data boundary first](https://docs.recordstead.app/your-data/what-leaves-your-mac).

## Turn access on

1. Open **Settings** (⌘,) and select **AI Assistants**.
2. Switch on **Allow AI assistants to access your meetings**.
3. Read **Allow AI assistants to access your meetings?**. If you agree, tick
   **I understand that what an assistant reads may leave this Mac.** and click
   **Allow Access**.
4. Under **Workspaces**, turn on each workspace the assistant may use. Every
   workspace starts off, so until you turn one on the status line reads
   **On. Assistants see no workspaces until you turn one on below.**

A workspace you add later stays off until you turn it on here. Turning access
off turns every workspace off again.


## Connect Claude or Codex

Under **Connect your assistant**, each supported assistant on this Mac has a
row. **Claude** covers Claude Desktop and Claude Code; **Codex** covers Codex in
the ChatGPT app, in Terminal and in your editor.

1. Click **Connect** in the assistant's row.
2. Read what Recordstead will run, then click **Connect**.
3. For Claude Desktop, Claude opens its own window for the Recordstead
   extension. Claude warns there that the extension gets access to your
   computer and that Anthropic has not checked its developer: it says this
   about every extension installed from a file rather than from its directory.
   The extension starts only Recordstead's own connector. Confirm the
   installation there.

The row then reads **Configured**. Start a new Claude Code or Codex session to
use it. If the row asks you to restart ChatGPT, quit and reopen the ChatGPT app.

To disconnect an assistant, click **Remove** in its row. Claude Desktop removes
its extensions itself, so its row offers **Remove in Claude** instead: click it,
then **Open Claude**, and uninstall Recordstead in Claude's settings.

For any other assistant, open **Other assistants**, click **Copy** and paste
the message into that assistant.

## What it can read

The pane lists this under **Connected assistants can read**, all of it only in
the [workspaces](https://docs.recordstead.app/workspaces/what-a-workspace-separates) you turned on: their
names, your meeting list, search results, summaries, your notes on a meeting,
stretches of transcript, your [tasks](https://docs.recordstead.app/meetings/your-tasks), your Dictionary terms, and the
[templates](https://docs.recordstead.app/summaries/protocol-templates) your summaries are written from. An
assistant's search covers every workspace you turned on for it. The
assistant learns how many other workspaces exist, but not their names. A
meeting's live transcript is not among them.

The section footer states: **Recordings and audio paths stay out of reach.**

## Changing things is a separate switch

**Let assistants make changes** is off by default. Turn it on only if you want
the assistant to rename meetings, check off or remove your tasks, edit
Dictionary terms, or add and edit [templates](https://docs.recordstead.app/summaries/protocol-templates),
in the workspaces you turned on. It cannot delete meetings.

## Check a connection

Click **Test Connection** in the assistant's row. **Connection verified** means
Recordstead checked the connector and a supported installed client's connection.
When only the connector can be checked, the row stays **Configured** and explains
which client verification is unavailable.

A confirmed problem stays in Home's **Needs you** card. Click **Settings** on its
row to open the affected assistant's settings, then follow the displayed guidance
and test again. An incomplete check keeps the last known problem visible.

## If the connection stops working

Recordstead must be running. Reopen it and retry; setup does not need repeating.

If the assistant says a workspace or meeting is not turned on for assistants,
turn that workspace on under **Workspaces**, then ask again.

If a row says the assistant points to another connector, for example after
you moved Recordstead, click **Replace**. Recordstead shows the old and the new
setting before it changes anything.

## Related

- [Shape your summaries with templates](https://docs.recordstead.app/summaries/protocol-templates)
- [What stays on your Mac, and the only ways anything leaves](https://docs.recordstead.app/your-data/what-leaves-your-mac)