Reader setup
The coach runs in Claude today, on the desktop app, on claude.ai in a browser, or on mobile. ChatGPT and the other major assistants are rolling out shortly, and anything you buy now carries over when they do.
It might be in the back of the book, in the author's newsletter, or on their website. It opens the page for that specific book, which is where you get access.
Checkout is handled by Stripe, so your card details never touch Claude, the author, or us. It is one payment, not a subscription, and nothing renews. If it turns out not to be for you, email us within 24 hours of your purchase and we refund it in full.
Use an email address you actually check. That email is your account. There is no password to choose and no form to fill in beyond the payment page.
Right after checkout we send a sign-in link to the email you paid with. Open it in the browser you are going to use with Claude. That is your whole account: no password to choose, nothing to remember.
Do this before the next step and the rest of the setup goes through without stopping to ask who you are.
After payment you land back on the book page, and the same URL is in your confirmation email. It is the same address for every book and every author, so you only ever do this once.
https://app.scholias.com/mcp
Copy it now. The next step asks you to paste it.
Open Claude, go to Settings, then Connectors. On some versions of Claude that list sits one level in, under Customize. Click the + button, choose Add custom connector, name it Scholias, paste the URL, and click Add. Leave the OAuth Client ID and Secret blank: there is nothing there for you to fill in.
This works in the Claude desktop app, on claude.ai in a browser, and in the mobile apps. A free Claude account is enough.
A page opens asking you to authorize Scholias. This is expected. Check the address is the one you just pasted, then click Approve.
Approve in the same browser you signed in with at step 3. That is the one thing that trips people up. If it asks who you are, use the same email you paid with and it will send you a fresh link to click. There is no password anywhere in this flow.
You land back in Claude and see no new window, no new button, no welcome message. A connector is not an app. It sits quietly behind the chat until you call on it.
If you want to see that it is there, click the + at the bottom left of any chat and choose Connectors. Scholias should be in the list with its toggle on. That same menu is how you switch it off for a particular conversation.
Open a chat and say so. Any of these works, in a brand new conversation or in one you already had going:
Ask MikalOpens that named coach. Gutenberg titles have no persona — they are found by search, not by listing the shelf.
I never have enough timeThe coach searches your library and returns a handful of hits. It will not dump 3,000 titles.
What else did Carnegie write?A narrow author list. That is the only time titles are listed.
If something goes wrong
Look at the top level of Settings first. On some versions of Claude it sits one level in, under Customize. If you are on a Team or Enterprise plan and there is no way to add one, that is by design: an owner adds it for the organization first, and then it appears in your list for you to connect.
Request a fresh one at app.scholias.com/login, using the same email you paid with. Check your spam folder too: it is a one-time link from an address you have not seen before, which is exactly what filters hold back.
That is expected. Paying and connecting are two separate steps. Go back to the book page or your confirmation email, copy the Scholias URL, and do step 5.
Almost always this is two browsers. Claude opened the authorize page in one browser while you are signed in to Scholias in another. Copy that authorize address into the browser where you opened your sign-in link, or sign in again from app.scholias.com/login in the browser Claude opened.
It will not announce itself. Open a new chat and type Ask Mikal, or describe the problem you want help with. If it still does nothing, click the + at the bottom left of the chat, choose Connectors, and check that Scholias is toggled on for this conversation.
Say Ask Mikal (or another named coach) in a fresh chat, or describe the problem and let search pick the opening. You can steer once it is running: name a chapter, or describe what is going on and let it take you to the part that answers it.
No. One connector covers every book and every author. Name the coach (Ask Dale) or describe the problem. The coach searches — it does not list every title.
Write to hello@scholias.com with the book title and the email you paid with, and we will sort it out.