CandleKeep for Claude Cowork & Desktop
NewUse CandleKeep inside Claude Cowork or Claude Desktop. Install the plugin in one step, sign in once, and Claude can search your library, read pages with citations, and draft new knowledge docs — all without a terminal.
Everything happens in Claude's Customize panel. Installing the plugin adds the skill, the four specialist subagents that drive the research workflow, and the CandleKeep connector that reaches your library — together, in a single step. After that, just talk to Claude normally — "what does my library say about…", "draft a knowledge doc on…", "find me a book on…" — and CandleKeep activates automatically.
Copy-paste version
The whole setup in plain text — no screenshots needed. Copy it for yourself, or paste it to Claude and ask it to walk you through each step. (Claude can't click these buttons for you — the Customize panel is part of the app, not something an agent controls — but it can guide you through them.)
CandleKeep — no-terminal setup for Claude Desktop / Cowork
1. Click Customize in the left sidebar.
2. Open Plugins, then click "Add marketplace".
3. Paste: CandleKeepAgents/candlekeep-marketplace
4. CandleKeep now appears in the plugin list — click Install.
5. Claude prompts you to sign in so its bundled connector can
reach your library. Sign in with the same account you use on
getcandlekeep.com, then click Authorize.
Done. The skill, the four subagents (librarian, item-reader,
book-writer, book-enricher) and the connector are all installed.
Just talk to Claude normally — "what does my library say about
X?" — and CandleKeep activates automatically.What you'll be able to do
- ✓Research with citations — Claude searches your library, reads the right pages, answers with specific page references.
- ✓Marketplace auto-subscribe — if no book in your library covers a topic, Claude finds one on the marketplace, subscribes silently, then reads it.
- ✓Create & edit knowledge docs — draft new markdown books, append chapters, or update existing entries. Versions are saved automatically.
- ✓Manuscript curation — Claude proposes additions to your active manuscripts when a session produces something genuinely worth keeping.
Install the plugin
All of it happens inside Claude, and you only do it once.
1. Click Customize in the left sidebar.
2. Open Plugins, then click Add marketplace.
3. Paste CandleKeepAgents/candlekeep-marketplace and confirm.
4. CandleKeep now appears in the plugin list — click Install.
5. Claude prompts you to sign in so its bundled connector can reach your library. Sign in at getcandlekeep.com with the same account you use for the dashboard, then click Authorize.
That's the whole setup. The install adds three things at once: the candlekeep skill, four specialist subagents (librarian, item-reader, book-writer, book-enricher), and the CandleKeep connector.
Adding the marketplace once means Claude keeps the plugin current: click Update on the marketplace to pull the latest version. We're also under review for Anthropic's official catalog — once we're listed, steps 2 and 3 collapse into Browse plugins, and marketplaces you added by hand keep working either way.
1Click Customize in the left sidebar to get started.
Prefer a file? Install from the plugin package instead.
Download getcandlekeep.com/cowork-plugin.zip and use the upload option on the Plugins page. This is the same package the marketplace serves. The trade-off: an uploaded file doesn't auto-update, so you'd re-download it to pick up changes — which is why the marketplace route above is the one we recommend.
Note this is a plugin package, not a skill bundle — install it under Plugins, not under Skills. The Skills uploader expects a single skill at the top level and will reject it.
Don't have a library yet? Create a free account and upload a few PDFs first — the plugin reads whatever is in your CandleKeep account.
Building your own client? The MCP endpoint also accepts a ck_ API key as a Bearer token instead of the plugin connector — handy for headless setups. Grab one and see the snippet on the Developers page.
Try it
Open a new chat with Claude and try any of these. The skill activates automatically from natural language — no slash command needed.
| If you ask… | CandleKeep will… |
|---|---|
| "What does my library say about Rust async?" | Search your library, read the most relevant pages, answer with citations. |
| "Find me a book on Verilog and add it." | Browse the marketplace, subscribe to the best match, then read it. |
| "Summarise chapter 4 of Refactoring UI." | Pull the table of contents, read the chapter, summarise with a citation block. |
| "Draft a knowledge doc on our incident-response runbook." | Create a new markdown document, then iterate with you. |
Permissions you'll grant
When you click Authorize during install, Claude requests these scopes. You can revoke them anytime from your settings page.
- library:readlist, search, read your items and their table of contents.
- library:writecreate new markdown items, edit existing ones, enrich metadata.
- marketplace:readbrowse community-published listings.
- marketplace:writesubscribe to listings (counts against your plan's item limit).
Troubleshooting
- Claude isn't triggering CandleKeep. Check that the plugin shows as installed and enabled under Customize → Plugins, and that its CandleKeep connector is connected. Then try a clear phrase like "what does my CandleKeep library say about X?".
- The Authorize page asks me to sign in twice. Open the dashboard in the same browser first, then retry the install. Claude reuses your session.
- Claude says my library is empty. The plugin reads the account you authorized — confirm it's the same email you use on getcandlekeep.com, and that your uploads finished processing. The dashboard's Library Health view flags anything stalled or failed.
- Behaviour seems out of date after an update. The connector's tools update live, but the skill and subagents ship inside the plugin. Under Customize → Plugins, click Update on the CandleKeep marketplace to pull the newest version. If you installed from the zip instead, re-download it — uploaded files don't auto-update.
- A research answer mentions a Pro preview. That book is from the marketplace, owned by another user, and scoped to Pro for full access. You see the first two pages on FREE. Upgrade at /billing for the full chapter, then ask Claude to redo the answer.
Still stuck?
Email [email protected] or open a ticket on the support page. Include what you asked Claude and what it answered — that's usually enough for us to reproduce it.