Start here: name it in your message
Once BBQAdvisor is connected, say its name in your message and Claude will bring it in. That one habit is the difference between generic BBQ advice and a plan built on real timelines, temps, and rub math.
- “Plan a cook with BBQAdvisor.”
- “Ask BBQAdvisor if my brisket is out of the stall.”
- “What’s in my BBQAdvisor library?”
- “I just pulled it off the smoker — log it in BBQAdvisor.”
After the first mention you can keep going normally; Claude stays with it for the rest of the conversation. If a reply ever looks like generic barbecue advice — no timeline, no mention of your library — name BBQAdvisor again and ask for the same thing.
What it is
The BBQAdvisor connector links your BBQAdvisor account to Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant. Once connected, Claude can work with your real cooks — your saved plans, your rub library, your cook history — instead of answering from general BBQ knowledge.
Everything the connector does runs through the same BBQAdvisor service as the app. Cooks you plan in a conversation appear in the app’s library; cooks you log in the app inform what Claude sees. One account, one library, wherever you work. BBQAdvisor is live on the App Store for iPhone — the connector works the same either way, and you don’t need the app at all to use it.
On Claude apps that support interactive cards, results come back as cards right in the conversation — a photo picker built in, a share button on a finished diagnosis, browsable rub presets and cut options — instead of a wall of text. On a host that doesn’t, everything still works the same way, just as plain text with links.
What you can do
Plan a cook. Pick a cut, give the size, say when you want to eat — Claude will always ask what you want to season with before it plans, never invent a rub for you. Every plan computes from BBQAdvisor’s own cut-parameter tables, not estimation: a backwards-planned timeline with a built-in hold buffer, two clearly separated temps (USDA-safe and actually-done), when to expect the stall and whether to wrap, and a rub recipe scaled to your exact weight or rack count. This works for the full roster through the connector — you’ll see a note when a cut is one of the app’s Pro cuts, but planning itself is never paywalled in a Claude conversation.
Check mid-cook. Give your probe temp and time on, optionally with a photo for a bark read. On Claude apps that support it, a card appears right in the conversation with a photo picker built in — on a host that doesn’t render cards, you’ll get a link to the same form instead. Either way you get a verdict, not a shrug: on track, in the stall, wrap now, almost done, or done — cut-aware, so ribs won’t get told they’re stalling. Pro.
Log the result. Photograph the sliced cross-section and get a scored diagnosis card — bark, smoke ring, moisture, and tenderness, plus what to change next time, with a button to share the result as a public link if you want to. Pro.
Build and save your own rubs. Start from a regional preset (Texas, Kansas City, Memphis, Carolina, Santa Maria, Coffee-chili, Herb crust) and tweak it, or build one from scratch. BBQAdvisor does the batch math either way and remembers it for next time.
Plan a smoked sausage cook. Time-to-safe-temp and smoke-color guidance for kit-based sausage, with the safe finished temp always coming from BBQAdvisor’s own tables — never estimated.
Work your library. List your saved cooks and rubs, and — with BBQAdvisor Pro — compare runs of the same cook side by side to see what changed.
How to connect
You’ll need a Claude account (claude.ai) on a plan that supports connectors, and about a minute:
1. In Claude, open Settings → Connectors, search the directory for BBQAdvisor, and add it. (If you’d rather add it by hand, choose Add custom connector and give it the URL https://api.bbqadvisor.app/mcp — same thing.)
2. Claude opens BBQAdvisor’s sign-in page. Enter your email — we send an 8-character sign-in code to your inbox. No password to create, no card required.
3. Enter the code, approve the connection, and you’re done. If you’ve used BBQAdvisor before with the same email, your library is already there. If you’re new, a free account is created on the spot.
Then send your first message with BBQAdvisor in it — see Start here above.
To disconnect at any time, remove BBQAdvisor from Claude’s Connectors settings. Access tokens expire on their own.
If Claude isn’t using BBQAdvisor
Almost always, it just wasn’t asked. Claude decides for itself when to reach for a connector, and a plain question like “how do I know when the stall is over?” is one it will happily answer on its own — with general advice, not your cook.
Name BBQAdvisor in the message. “Plan a cook with BBQAdvisor” engages it; “plan a brisket” often won’t. This is the fix roughly every time.
Check it’s still connected. Settings → Connectors in Claude. If it’s missing, add it again — your library and history are tied to your account, not the connection, so nothing is lost.
Photos and results, if you don’t see a card. Most Claude apps render an interactive card in place, and the result appears automatically once you submit a photo — no extra step. If you get a plain link to a form on our site instead, that’s the fallback for hosts that don’t render cards: open it, submit, then tell Claude you’re done and it will fetch the result. The form can’t message your conversation on its own, so it needs that nudge.
It asked what you’re seasoning with and won’t plan without an answer. That’s by design — BBQAdvisor never invents a rub for you. Say what you’re using, or tell it you’re going unseasoned.
Sign-in code didn’t arrive. Check spam. Codes last 15 minutes and can only be used once; start the connection again for a fresh one.
Still stuck? support@bbqadvisor.app — a description of what you asked and what came back is enough to go on.
How photos work
Photos never travel through the conversation. On Claude apps that support interactive cards, the photo picker appears right in the card — take a photo or choose one from your library, and it uploads directly, with nothing else to submit. On a host that doesn’t render cards, BBQAdvisor instead hands you a private, single-use link that opens the same picker as a form on our site. Either way, photos are held for minutes at most and deleted as soon as they’re analyzed, and a shot taken in the card or form goes straight to the analysis without being saved to your phone — use your camera app first if you want to keep it.
Free and Pro
Planning a cook through the connector is free and unlimited, for any cut on the roster. Mid-cook Check and finished-cook Log require BBQAdvisor Pro, the same as in the app — Pro also unlocks unlimited saves and cross-cook comparison. There’s nothing extra to buy for the connector itself.
Privacy
The short version: we receive only what the tools need — the details of each request and the photos you submit through our own forms. We never see your Claude conversation, and Claude only sees what a tool returns. The full details live in the connector section of our privacy policy.
Questions or trouble
Write to support@bbqadvisor.app. If a sign-in code doesn’t arrive, check your spam folder first — codes expire after 15 minutes, and you can always request a fresh one by starting the connection again.