Overview
What Is In This Guide
The two kinds of connectors, and why half of people fail at step one
Perplexity: real research with real sources, connected in about 90 seconds
Blotato: your social accounts inside Claude, plus comment-to-DM in one paste
Playwright: Claude driving your actual browser, clicking things for you
The exact order to do all 3 in under 5 minutes
The 7 things that quietly break these, none of which are in the setup docs
Before Anything Else
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Blotato partnered with me on this guide. Connector 2 is theirs, and you can try the whole thing free for 7 days before you pay anything. When you subscribe, the code below takes 30% off for 3 months.
ZACH30 Perplexity and Playwright are not sponsored and not affiliate links. They are in here because I use them every day.
Section 1
The Part Nobody Explains First
A connector is just a door. It gives Claude the ability to go touch something outside the chat window, instead of guessing at it from memory. That is the whole idea.
Here is the thing that trips people up, and it is the reason most setup videos leave half their comments section confused. There are two completely different kinds of connector, and they do not install the same way.
Remote
Perplexity and Blotato
These live on the internet as a URL. You paste the URL into Claude once and sign in. Because there is nothing running on your machine, these work everywhere: claude.ai in a browser, the Claude desktop app, and Claude Code.
Local
Playwright
This one runs on your computer, because it has to drive a browser that physically exists. There is no URL to paste. That means it works in Claude Code and the Claude desktop app, and it cannot work in claude.ai in a browser. Nothing is broken if you cannot find it there.
So if you are working in claude.ai in a browser, you can do two of these three today, and the third needs the desktop app or Claude Code. That is not a limitation you did something wrong to hit. It is just what a browser can and cannot reach.
Connector 1 — Remote
Perplexity
This connects Claude to the best research model out there. Once it is on, Claude stops answering from what it remembers and starts checking what is actually true right now, with sources attached.
It is the difference between "I think" and "I checked, and here is where it came from." If you only install one of these three, install this one.
Claude in a browser, or the desktop app
In the left sidebar, click Customize, then Connectors.
Click the + button, then Add custom connector.
Name it Perplexity, URL https://api.perplexity.ai/mcp
Press connect. A browser window opens, you sign in to Perplexity, and you pick which organization pays for the calls. Approve it and you are done.
Claude Code, one line
Then type /mcp inside Claude Code and follow the sign-in prompt. The -s user flag is the one people drop, and dropping it means the connector only exists in the one folder you were standing in.
Say one of these the second it connects
Research what changed in AI agents in the last 30 days and give me sources for every claim.
Find 5 companies hiring for this exact role right now and tell me what they pay.
Fact check this paragraph line by line and tell me which parts you could not verify.
Connector 2 — Remote
Blotato
This connects Claude to all of your social accounts. Posting, repurposing, analytics, post graphics, all of it from the chat window you are already in.
The reason it is in this guide and not just another tool roundup is what it added recently: comment-to-DM automations. You describe the flow in one sentence and Claude builds the whole thing. The trigger, the follow gate, the message, the link button. No ManyChat, no second subscription, and you never leave Claude.
Claude in a browser, or the desktop app
Log in to Blotato first, in the same browser. Skip this and the approval never finishes.
In the left sidebar, click Customize, then Connectors.
Click the + button, then Add custom connector.
Name it Blotato, URL https://mcp.blotato.com/mcp
Press connect and approve access.
Claude Code, one line
Now build the comment-to-DM flow
This is the part worth the whole setup. Fill in the four values at the top, paste it into Claude the second your post goes live, and it handles the rest. It checks which account it is attaching to, shows you the exact flow before it builds anything, waits for you to say go, then creates it and turns it on.
Someone comments your keyword
Blotato is watching that post and matches the word. Case does not matter, so CLAUDE, Claude and claude all fire the same flow.
The follow gate goes out first
Instead of the link, they get a message asking them to follow. The real DM is held back until they do. This is the step that turns comments into followers instead of just traffic.
They follow, the DM lands
The second they tap the button confirming they followed, your message goes out with the link button attached. No delay, no you sitting there at 11pm pasting a URL 400 times.
Optional: email gate and webhook
If you turn them on, Blotato asks for an email before the DM, then calls your endpoint after it sends. The order is fixed: follow gate, email gate, your message, webhook.
Copy-paste prompt
Set up a comment-to-DM automation on my Instagram using Blotato. FILL THESE IN BEFORE YOU PASTE: - KEYWORD: [one word, all caps, the word you tell people to comment] Example: GUIDE - LINK: [the URL you're sending them to] Example: https://yoursite.com/free-guide - THE FREE THING: [what you're sending, in one short phrase] Example: the 10-minute cold email teardown - WHICH POST: [the reel I just published, or: every post] BUILD IT LIKE THIS: - Name: "KEYWORD - comment to DM" - Trigger: comment-received, keyword KEYWORD - Follow gate: ON. Message: "Yes! Follow me first and I'll send it straight over. Tap the button below once you're following (or just reply "done" if you don't see a button)." - Follow gate button label: "I'm following" - DM message: "Here it is, THE FREE THING. Tap below and it's yours." - One link button: label "Send it over", URL = LINK - Make it live immediately BEFORE YOU CREATE IT: 1. Call blotato_list_accounts and tell me which Instagram account you're about to attach this to. 2. Show me the exact automation you're about to create: name, trigger, keyword, follow gate message, button label, DM text, link button, and whether it's active. 3. Wait for me to say go. Do not create it before I confirm. AFTER YOU CREATE IT: 4. Confirm it's active and give me the automation ID. 5. Remind me that my own comments will never trigger it, so I have to test from a second Instagram account. RULES YOU MUST FOLLOW: - The DM message has to be under 640 characters. - Max 3 link buttons, and every button label has to be 20 characters or fewer. - Use a link button OR a plain-text URL in the message, never both. If a message carries both, the URL stops being clickable on desktop and those readers end up with no working link at all. - The follow gate is Instagram only. If I ever ask you to put one on Facebook, tell me it will be rejected. - If my keyword is a word that lives inside a longer word people actually type, warn me before you build it.
What I filled in for this exact guide
If you got this guide by commenting on my post, that automation is what sent it to you.
Connector 3 — Local
Playwright
This gives Claude full control of a real browser. Not a description of a page, the actual page, with Claude clicking through it.
It fills out forms, tests your site, pulls data straight off any page, and uses tools that do not have an API or a connector of their own yet. It is basically giving Claude hands, so it can go do the clicking you would otherwise be doing yourself.
This is the local one, so there is no URL to paste. It needs a terminal once.
Claude Code, one line
Quit Claude Code completely and reopen it. It will not show up in a session that was already running.
Claude desktop app
Open Settings, then Developer, then Edit MCP configuration file.
Add the block below inside mcpServers, save the file, then fully quit and reopen the app.
"playwright": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["@playwright/mcp@latest"]
}Say one of these to test it
Use Playwright to open my site and tell me everything that looks broken on mobile.
Use Playwright to pull every product name and price off this page into a table.
Use Playwright to fill out this form with test data and tell me where it fails.
Say the word Playwright out loud in the prompt. Claude will answer from memory if you do not point it at the tool.
Section 5
The 5-Minute Order
Do them in this order and none of the steps block each other.
Open Claude. Perplexity first, because it is the one you will use every day. Paste the URL, sign in, done.
Blotato next. Make sure you are logged into Blotato in the same browser before you hit connect, or the handshake never finishes.
Playwright last, because it is the only one that needs a terminal. One line, then restart Claude Code.
Test each one with a single sentence. If Claude says it cannot do something, it did not load the connector. Restart, then ask again.
Section 6
The 7 Things That Quietly Break These
None of these are in the setup docs. Every one of them has cost me time.
Claude will not use a connector unless you point at it
With three connected, Claude sometimes answers from memory instead of reaching for a tool. Say the name out loud in the prompt. "Use Perplexity to research" beats "research". This one fix solves most of the "it is not working" messages I get.
You have to restart after adding a local connector
Playwright will not appear in a session that was already open when you added it. Quit Claude Code completely and start it again. Not a bug, and not something the install output tells you.
Playwright downloads a browser the first time
Your first Playwright request takes a minute or two longer than every one after it, because it is pulling down a browser in the background. It is not frozen. Let it finish once and it never does it again.
Blotato needs you logged in, in the same browser
If you are signed out of Blotato when you hit connect, the approval screen never completes and you get a connector that looks added but does nothing. Log in first, then connect.
Your own comments never trigger your automation
You will test the comment-to-DM flow on your own post, see nothing happen, and assume it is broken. Blotato ignores comments from the account that owns the automation. Test from a second Instagram account.
Never put a button and a plain URL in the same DM
A message carrying both leaves the URL unclickable on desktop, so those readers end up with no working link at all. Pick one. Button for a mobile audience, plain URL for a desktop-heavy one.
Keywords match whole words only
CLAUDE matches claude. It does not match claudeai. Pick a word nobody types inside a normal sentence, and never pick one that lives inside a longer word people actually use.
Connect all 3, then point at them by name. That is the whole thing.
Try It Yourself
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Connect it to Claude, paste the prompt above, and watch it build the flow on your next post. When you are ready to subscribe, use the code below.
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