Working from Claude

Adding it

1. Open Claude's settings and go to Connectors.
2. Find My Local Press in the directory and click Connect.
3. Sign in with a My Local Press account and approve the connection.

That's the whole setup. A free account is all it takes, and there's nothing to turn on inside My Local Press first.

One thing worth knowing: a connector in Claude can't be edited after it's added. If a setting needs to change, remove it and add it again.

What it can do

Five things, and no more than five.

• Create a draft. A story, event, classified, public notice, coupon, alert, initiative, local resource, spotlight, poll, survey, or long-form video listing — whichever type fits — lands in the account as a draft with its title, body, tags, category, and place.
• Revise a draft. Change a headline, tighten a lede, fix a date, add tags. It works on drafts started in Claude and drafts started in the app.
• Check a draft's status. What type it is, what it's called, whether it's still a draft, and when it last changed.
• List open drafts. Everything unfinished in the account, newest first. Useful right before a publishing session.
• Attach a photo, video, or audio file. The file joins the draft, the same way media added in the app does.

Everything happens inside one account. The connector reads and writes that account's own drafts, and reaches nothing else on My Local Press.

Drafts only, on purpose

There's no publish tool. Not a setting, not an option behind a confirmation — the tool doesn't exist, so publishing isn't something an assistant can do on anyone's behalf. Work arrives as a draft, and a person opens My Local Press and decides whether it runs.

That's a deliberate choice. Local news works because someone stands behind what's on the page. An assistant that could publish straight to a town's feed would fill it with material nobody read first, and a feed nobody reads first isn't worth reading at all. The drafting is the part a machine is good at; the decision to publish is the part that has to stay with a person.

It's also where My Local Press's own rules live. Publishing runs the same checks it always has — content type rules, editorial review where it applies, and the vouching that certain kinds of publishing require. Drafting is open to any account from day one. Nothing about connecting an assistant moves those lines.

What it can't do

• Publish anything, or submit anything for review.
• Read the public feed, search My Local Press, or open anyone else's content.
• See or change another person's drafts, even with a draft ID.
• Delete content, change account settings, or touch payments, payouts, or advertising.
• Act with more permission than the account holder has in the app. The connector goes through the same API the My Local Press apps use, signed in as the same person.

Disconnecting

Remove the connector from Claude's settings and its access stops. Drafts it already created stay in the account, exactly like drafts created in the app — they can be finished, published, or deleted from My Content.